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A crucial match for Knight Riders

S. Sabanayakan

— Photo: Sushanta Patronobish

MASTER GETTING READY: Muttiah Muralitharan limbers up with Chennai Super Kings team-mates in Kolkata on Saturday.

KOLKATA: As the inaugural DLF-Indian Premier League draws to a close, competition has begun to hot up with teams scrambling to book semifinal berths. And the clash between Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders in a key match at the Eden Gardens here on Sunday promises lot of fireworks.

The demoralising loss against Mumbai Indians on Friday will certainly bring into focus the Knight Riders’ inability to win matches against quality opposition.

Summon all resources

Beset with problems in its batting, Knight Riders will have to summon all its resources to get the better of Super Kings to stay in the competition.

Though losing five matches out of ten so far may be par for the course, the Kolkata outfit cannot afford to lose any more ‘home’ matches.

Knight Riders’ four wins have come against the two bottom-placed sides — Royal Challengers Bangalore and Deccan Chargers. The win against Delhi Daredevils can be attributed to the extraordinary showing of Shoaib Akhtar. Otherwise, the Kolkata side has nothing to boast off against better-placed teams!

Super Kings has won six out of its 10 matches and the team’s manager (cricket operations), V.B. Chandrashekar, feels his outfit needs to win at least two of the remaining matches to ensure a semifinal berth.

Chennai Super Kings captain M.S. Dhoni refused to read too much into the Knight Riders’ last defeat. “Everything is not lost for the Knight Riders. I don’t think the defeat would have dented the confidence level of the side. It will come at us strongly,” he cautioned.

Batting blues

Knight Riders will have to quickly sort out its batting blues. Apart from skipper Sourav Ganguly, David Hussey and, to some extent, Laxmi Ratan Shukla have been among the runs. Knight Riders does not have someone in the mould of Jayasuriya to turn the match around single-handedly. Akhtar has definitely given the side an edge in bowling.

Super Kings has an exciting batting line-up capable of tearing apart any bowling attack. On the bowling side, apart from the peerless Muttiah Muralitharan, the team can fall back upon Albie Morkel, L. Balaji, Makhaya Ntini and Joginder Sharma to deliver.

Both the teams are known for its keen fielding. The team which plays better on the day will control the outcome of the match.

The teams (from):

Chennai Super Kings: M.S. Dhoni (capt.), Stephen Fleming, S. Vidyut, Suresh Raina, S. Badrinath, A. Morkel, Joginder Sharma, L. Balaji, M. Muralitharan, M. Ntini, P Amarnath, S. Anirudh, Chamara Kapugedera, Parthiv Patel and M. Gony.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Sourav Ganguly (capt.), Aakash Chopra, Salman Butt, David Hussey, Wriddhiman Saha, Ajit Agarkar, Shoaib Akhtar, Umar Gul, Iqbal Abdullah, Murali Kartik, Ishant Sharma, Ashok Dinda, L.R. Shukla, Md. Hafeez, T. Taibu and Debabrata Das.

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