With the UAE phase done and dusted, the IPL action now shifts its base to India and its first game sees the formidable Chennai Super Kings take on Gautam Gambhir-led Kolkata Knight Riders on Friday.
With the UAE phase done and dusted, the IPL action now shifts its base to India and its first game sees the formidable Chennai Super Kings take on Gautam Gambhir-led Kolkata Knight Riders on Friday.
Since being outplayed by table-toppers Kings XI Punjab in their high-scoring opening game, Dhoni’s men has went on to win the next four games with ease.
In stark contrast, KKR who started off with a victory against the defending champions Mumbai Indians, showed some poor form as they lost their way in the UAE. With three defeats and two wins, the 2012 winners will hope to reverse their fortunes against the CSK.
Even the two skippers have reversing roles where Mahendra Singh Dhoni is always confident and has been marshalled his CSK side with vigour and led them to success. His counterpart, Gautam Gambhir has seen a run of miserable form of late with the bat that saw him get out on a hat-trick of ducks.
Southpaw Gambhir who scored a 45 in the last game as the Rajasthan Royals, would like to have a similar outing and might do him a world of good considering the thin batting line-up at KKR’s disposal. Youngsters Manvinder Bisla, Manish Pandey and Suryakumar Yadav will need to put up a much better performance if they are to overcome the mighty Super Kings. Spinner Sunil Narine will again be the key man with the ball for the KKR but the other bowlers need to chip in as well.
The Chennai Super Kings are looking a different outfit altogether with the likes of Brendon McCullum and Dwayne Smith putting up a formidable show at the top of the order. The likes of Suresh Raina, Faf du Plessis and MS Dhoni have brought in stability to the middle-order. Spinners Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin are delivering with the ball while the pace battery of Ben Hilfenhaus, Ishwar Pandey and Mohit Sharma have chipped in wickets as well.
Kolkata need to shrug off their UAE woes and start afresh in the Indian leg of the lucrative league and they have the capability to do so. With a mighty CSK standing in front of them, Gautam Gambhir needs to shoulder some responsibility and if he can add some runs, surely KKR can have the last laugh.
Teams (from):
Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir (c), Sunil Narine, Jacques Kallis, Robin Uthappa, Yusuf Pathan, Shakib Al Hasan, Umesh Yadav, Vinay Kumar, Morne Morkel, Piyush Chawla, Manish Pandey, Veer Pratap Singh, Chris Lynn, Andre Russell, SS Mandal, Pat Cummins, Debabrata Das, Suryakumar Yadav, Manvinder Bisla, Ryan ten Doeschate, Kuldeep Yadav
Chennai Super Kings: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (C), Suresh Raina, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Faf du Plessis, Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Smith, Ashish Nehra, Mohit Sharma, Samuel Badree, Ben Hilfenhaus, Matt Henry, B Aparajith, Mithun Manhas, Ishwar Pandey, Pawan Negi, Vijay Shankar, Ronit More, John Hastings.
