Kolkata Take on Delhi in IPL 6 Opener

Eyeing a repeat of their success last season, Kolkata Knight Riders will open their title defence with a clash against a depleted Delhi Daredevils in the Indian Premier League on Wednesday.
Expectations will be high from the home side as they would aim to become only second team to win back-to-back titles. Only Chennai Super Kings have won consecutive trophies (2010 and 2011).
For Delhi, who are yet to win the title, it would be a season to make amends as they look at life without English swashbuckler Kevin Pietersen who has been ruled out for the entire tournament due to a knee injury.
Delhi will also miss out on explosive Kiwi batsman Jesse Ryder who was to begin his $300,000 contract before a brutal assault in a Christchurch bar left him hospitalised.
Last season's Purple cap holder, Morne Morkel (25 wickets), who bowled Titans to a semis place in the Ram Slam T20 Challenge in the South Africa domestic cricket, will also miss out on the opener.
And if that was not enough, Virender Sehwag is also a doubtful starter for the tournament-opener as he is down with back spams.
Having recovered from jaundice, KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir will be eager to start on a winning note under conditions best suited to them.
Among the foreign recruits, KKR will miss Brendon McCullum, who is down with a hamstring problem, while the recently-married Shakib Al Hasan is yet to report to the side.
West Indian mystery spinner Sunil Narine, the second leading wicket-taker behind Morkel with 24 scalps, was instrumental in KKR's success last season.
KKR will now hope to unleash another 'mystery' spinner in Lankan offie Sachitra Senanayake in the upcoming season.
Jacques Kallis will lend experience to the middle order, while the home grown players of Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Manoj Tiwary, Manvinder Bisla and Debabrata Das would also come in handy.
Laxmipathy Balaji, who was most economical last season, will add variety to the attack along with the part-timers in Rajat Bhatia and Shukla.
Besides Narine and Senanayake, the team also has Indian left-arm spinner Iqbal Abdulla, who though would face competition for a place in the XI.
If the absence of the big names was not enough, the Daredevils would have to deal with the poor form of David Warner and Virender Sehwag as both of them would look to get into their rhythms.
West Indian big hitter Andre Russell will look to play the role of a finisher. Till Morkel joins the side, the pressure would be on the Indian trio of Ashish Nehra, Umesh Yadav and Irfan Pathan.

Teams from

Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir (captain), Brad Haddin (wk), Brett Lee, Debabrata Das, Eoin Morgan, Yusuf Pathan, Iqbal Abdulla, Jacques Kallis, James Pattinson, Laxmipathy Balaji, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Manoj Tiwary, Manvinder Bisla (wk), Shami Ahmed, Pradeep Sangwan, Rajat Bhatia, Ryan McLaren, Ryan ten Doeschate, Sachitra Senanayake, Sarabjit Ladda, Sunil Narine

Delhi Daredevils: Mahela Jayawardene (captain), Virender Sehwag, Andre Russell, Arisht Singhvi, Ashish Nehra, CM Gautam, David Warner, Unmukt Chand, Venugopal Rao, Gulam Bodi, Irfan Pathan, Yogesh Nagar, Jeevan Mendis, Johan Botha, Kedar Jadhav, Manpreet Juneja, Naman Ojha (wk), Pawan Negi, Roelof van-der Morwe, Royston Dias, Siddharth Kaul, Sujit Nayak, Shahbaz Nadeem, Umesh Yadav, Ajit Agarkar. 

Gambhir Eyes Second Spot in IPL Table

Relieved to secure a comfortable seven-wicket victory over Pune Warriors, Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Gautam Gambhir on Thursday said his team would aim to win their next match and finish atleast in the second spot in the IPL points table.
Gambhir admitted he was nervous before their match against Pune and attributed their comfortable victory to the all-round display of his side.
"Very important two points today. It was a very important game and I was nervous, we had everything to lose today. We needed to be professional. We had come so close we couldn't afford to let it slip from here," he said.
"We needed to be up there, up the energy and if I am asking so much from the team I needed to have that first so I wanted to lead from the front and bring that intensity in the field.
"Credit goes to the entire team. We were never too keen on batting in a hurry for the Net run rate. It wasn't that kind of pitch," he added.
Asked about their next match against Mumbai Indians, Gambhir said, "We want to go out there and look to win the next game as they we would have a very bright chance of moving into the second spot in the table, so that's what we will focus on."
"Jacques' been doing a great job, his injury gave me an opportunity to open today. I want to give credit to the entire bunch of bowlers, everyone bowled well," he added.
Man of the Match, Yusuf Pathan, who scored 29 runs and scalped two wickets, said he was relaxed before the match.
"No tension ahead of the game. Gauti (Gautam) utilised me very well with the ball, I could get wickets and keep the runs down," he said.
Pune Warriors skipper Yuvraj said toss played a crucial factor and reckoned 140 would have been a good score in this pitch which turned a lot in the beginning.
"135-140 would have been a good score. Toss would have been vital, it turned a lot earlier in the first innings and not much in the second half. But credit goes to KKR they bowled according to a plan. we lost too many wickets in between," he said.
Yuvraj said he was giving the youngsters chance to bat up the order so that he can handle the pressure down the line.
"I am happy to allow youngsters bat ahead of me up the order. I have batted for India in tough situation and can handle the pressure," he said.
The left-hander said things didn't work out for his team once again and it was disappointing.
"It is difficult when you are out of reckoning and you have to play for your pride. Today again things didn't work for us, shots were going to fielders," he added.

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Kolkata Thrash Pune by 7 Wickets, Alive Play-off Hope

  

Gautam Gambhir's unbeaten 46-ball 54 led Kolkata Knight Riders to an emphatic seven-wicket victory over Pune Warriors India in their IPL match at DY Patil stadium in Mumbai on Thursday.
Gambhir hit 7 fours in his unbeaten knock as Kolkata chased down the 119-run victory target in 16.4 overs to move to the third spot in the points table.
Yusuf Pathan hit a six and three fours in his 25-ball 29 before Sourav Ganguly took a good catch running backwards to dismiss him off Wayne Parnell.
Manoj Tiwary added 46 runs for the second wicket with Gautam Gambhir before edging a Bhuvaneshwar Kumar delivery onto his stumps.
Tiwary hit a six and a four in his run-a-ball 24 before his dismissal.
Gambhir and Tiwary brought up Kolkata's 50 in the seventh over after the early dismissal of Shreevats Goswami.
Alfonso Thomas struck early for Pune when he had Goswami caught behind by Robin Uthappa on the fourth ball of the Kolkata run chase.
Earlier, Shakib Al Hasan, Yusuf Pathan and Lakshmipathy Balaji took two wickets each as Kolkata restricted Pune to 118/7.
Balaji, who bowled only the last over of the Pune innings, clean bowled Sachin Rana by a yorker on the last ball of the hosts' innings.
Pune lost their sixth wicket when their captain Yuvraj Singh mistimed a slower ball from Balaji high up in the air for keeper Shreevats Goswami to take the catch.
Yuvraj hit 2 fours in his 26-ball 24 before falling to Balaji.
Pathan took his second wicket when he had Robin Uthappa caught by Brett Lee at deep mid-wicket.
Uthappa hit a four in his 19-ball 12 before falling to Pathan.
Shakib had Sourav Ganguly caught by Pathan at short fine-leg to reduce Pune to 71/4.
Ganguly hit a six in his 22-ball 18 before falling to Shakib.
Shakib had Callum Ferguson stumped by Shreevats Goswami to reduce Pune to 44/3.
Ferguson hit 2 fours in his 19-ball 16 before charging down the pitch to go for a big hit but missed the ball that turned away from him and Goswami uprooted the stumps in a flash.
Yusuf Pathan gave Kolkata an early breakthrough when he had Jesse Ryder caught by Manoj Tiwary at long-off in the second over of their match.
Pune lost their second wicket when Iqbal Abdulla trapped Manish Pandey plumb in front of the wicket.
The breakthroughs came after Kolkata captain Gautam Gambhir won the toss and chose to bowl.
Kolkata dropped Mark Boucher, Eoin Morgan and Jaidev Unadkat and brought in Ryan ten Doeschate, Shakib Al Hasan and Shreevats Goswami.
Pune brought in Sachin Rana and Alfonso Thomas.

Brief scores
Pune Warriors 118 for 7 (Yuvraj 24, Balaji 2-7, Shakib 2-16)
Kolkata Knight Riders 119 for 3 (Gambhir 54*)
Results Kolkata Knight Riders won by 7 wickets
MOM Yusuf Pathan (Kolkata Knight Riders)
Points Kolkata Knight Riders 2, Pune Warriors 0

Pune Warriors Look to Spoil Knight Riders Party

Already out of the IPL play-off race having suffered 8 defeats in 12 games, Pune Warriors would be looking to restore some pride and play party poopers when they take on Kolkata Knight Riders on Thursday. 
While the Warriors have blown away any chance of making it to the four-team play-offs in this edition of the IPL, the Knight Riders are well poised to make it to the second phase of the tournament, having won seven out of 12 games with a total points tally of 14.
And a victory over the struggling Warriors would ease their way to advance to the play-off stage but they would certainly be aware of the pitfalls that the Pune outfit is capable of creating in their way.
A defeat for the Knight Riders would make their position shaky with Kings XI Punjab creeping up the table in grand fashion with a string of victories. Punjab have sent out strong signals to the currently placed top-four teams in the table, following their massive 111-run victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore on Tuesday.
Thursday's match to be played at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai takes on an extra edge with Sourav Ganguly playing against his old team.
The former India skipper would be eager to stamp his authority on the proceedings and send a message to the owners of the KKR, who discarded him after three years.
The Kolkata outfit has blown hot and cold this season. A string of wins has been followed by a few losses, including the one against Royal Challengers Bangalore in their previous game.
But they have had enough time to recover from that defeat and now would be anxious to hit the ground running and vanquishing the Warriors who arrested a seven-match losing sequence with a two back-to-back victories before suffering a huge defeat at home.
The Knight Riders' batting has revolved around five key players in captain Gautam Gambhir (312 runs from 12 games), leading run-scorer Jacques Kallis (358 from 12), Manoj Tiwary who has been the most consistent with a tally of four under 300 runs at a fine average of 74-plus, Yusuf Pathan and Eoin Morgan.
Kolkata's bowling has been sustained by spinners Pathan (11 wickets) and left-armer Iqbal Abdulla (14), but the biggest disappointment has been Brett Lee who has neither been incisive (4 wickets in 12 games) nor economical (236 runs conceded at over 7 per over and a none-too-impressive average of 59 per wicket).
Lee, would thus be eager to set things right on a track that has offered more bounce during the season than the one at the Knight Riders home venue, Eden Gardens.
Laxmipathy Balaji has done his bit with seven wickets under his belt but has also been expensive.
Against Pune's left-oriented top-order batting, Pathan can do the trick as he can take the ball away, which would invite Jesse Ryder, skipper Yuvraj Singh and Ganguly to play against the spin.
The Warriors batting has not lived up to expectations and has depended a lot on Ryder (291 runs from 12 games) at the top and Yuvraj (319 from 12) down the order till Ganguly's arrival late in the tournament.
Robin Uthappa (252 from 12) and Manish Pandey (230 from 8), who missed the first four matches due to a ban imposed on them by the IPL governing council, have not been very good at taking full advantage of their starts.
Uthappa said after the defeat against Deccan Chargers in the last game, the team would strive hard to win their last two games and avoid the wooden spoon in the ten-team tournament.
"Definitely we would play for pride. We would not want to be there at the bottom of the table. The season is not over yet. If we can finish on a high. We would be better off psychologically for next season," said the Karnataka batsman.
Pune's bowling has also been unimpressive so far and apart from Rahul Sharma's 16 wickets from 12 games in the tournament at an economy rate of 6, there is little the team can boost off.
Wayne Parnell and Yuvraj Singh (nine wickets from 12 games) are the other two bowlers, who have had a decent run till now but Murali Kartik (one wicket in six games) has been disappointing and thus failed to find a regular place in the playing eleven.

Teams from

Pune Warriors: Yuvraj Singh (capt), Robin Uthappa (wk), Sourav Ganguly, Murali Kartik, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Deeraj Jadhav, Eklavya Dwivedi, Ganesh Gaikwad, Harpreet Singh Bhatia, Harshad Khadiwale, Kamran Khan, Mithun Manhas, Mohnish Mishra, Rahul Sharma, Sachin Rana, Shrikant Wagh, Shrikant Mundhe, Imtiyaz Ahmed, Jesse Ryder, Graeme Smith, Wayne Parnell, Alphonso Thomas. Tim Paine, Callum Ferguson, Mitchell Marsh, Jerome Taylor, James Faulkner.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir (capt), Jacques Kallis, Eoin Morgan, Manoj Tiwary, L Balaji, Manvinder Bisla, Rajat Bhatia, Shreevats Goswami, Iqbal Abdulla, Yusuf Pathan, Sarabjit Ladda, Shkib Al Hasan, Pradeep Sangwan, Laxmi Rathan Shukla, Jaidev Unadkat, Ryan Doeschate, Brett Lee, Mark Boucher (wk), James Pattinson, Shami Ahmed.

Match facts
Thursday May 19, 2011 (day/night)
Start time 20:00 local (14:30 GMT)

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