With the IPL reaching its finale, the heads to Bangalore as the season reaches its climax when Kings XI Punjab go against the ever-resilient Kolkata Knight Riders in the title clash of the seventh Indian Premier League here on Sunday.
With the IPL reaching its finale, the heads to Bangalore as the season reaches its climax when Kings XI Punjab go against the ever-resilient Kolkata Knight Riders in the title clash of the seventh Indian Premier League here on Sunday.
Having cracked a 58-ball 122, veteran opener Virender Sehwag along with Glenn Maxwell and David Miller will be eyeing another big crack at the KKR, who will bank on their strong bowling unit, led by Sunil Narine.
Unlike Kolkata, who have won the title back in 2012, the Kings XI Punjab has never been a part of the finals. For Kolkata, to repeat the feat of lifting the trophy for the second time, however, will be a daunting task considering the opponents. Kolkata will have to cope with Maxwell, Miller, Manan Vohra, skipper George Bailey and Wriddhiman Saha.
Glenn Maxwell though will look to take a leaf out of his 90-plus run knocks in Abu Dhabi and Cuttack in the group stage of the tournament. Even though the Australian batsman has been silent with the bat, his destructive ability cannot be counted off and will certainly come up for discussion by Kolkata’s think-tank.
Kolkata will certainly look to take advantage of the fact that Kings XI, who had looked almost unstoppable during the group stage, have had their hiccups of late.
With two wins from their first seven matches, Kolkata were written off midway into the tournament, but bounced back in style to seal a playoff berth. Thanks to Yusuf Pathan’s 22-ball 72 that lifted them to the second spot and they ended up winning eight matches at a stretch.
KKR’s in-form batsman and Orange Cap holder, Robin Uthappa has been instrumental in giving fine starts with skipper Gautam Gambhir, who too has been in impressive form. The duo has been successfully giving the team starts before the likes of Shakib Al Hasan, Ryan ten Doeschate and Yusuf prop up the run rate in the middle overs. Yusuf will be a threat for KXIP bowlers in what promises to be yet another run feast with both teams boasting of powerful batting line-ups.
The slow bowlers could play a crucial role for KKR with the likes of Sunil Narine and Shakib Al-Hasan being instrumental in their side’s success. But as even though the foreign spinners have being doing well for KKR, what is heartening for Punjab is that they also have a good spin attack in Karanveer Singh and Akshar Patel, who bowled splendidly against Chennai.
Teams:
Kings XI Punjab: Virender Sehwag, Manan Vohra, Wridhiman Saha, Glenn Maxell, David Miller, George Bailey, Akshar Patel, Rishi Dhawan, Mitchell Johnson, Karanveer Singh, L Balaji, Sandeep Sharma, Parvinder Awana, B Hendricks, Shaun Marsh, Cheteshwar Pujara, Mandeep Singh, Shardul Thakur, Shivam Sharma, Anureet Singh, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, M Karthik.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir (captain), Robin Uthappa (wk), Manish Pandey, Yusuf Pathan, Shakib Al Hasan, Ryan ten Doeschate, Suryakumar Yadav, Morne Morkel, Umesh Yadav, R Vinay Kumar, Sunil Narine, Jacques Kallis, Andre Russell, Pat Cummins, Chris Lynn, R Vinay Kumar, Manvinder Bisla, Debabrata Das, Kuldeep Yadav, Sayan Mondal and Veer Pratap Singh.
