Kolkata to Clash with Struggling Punjab

Having slumped to two successive defeats, Kings XI Punjab will be hoping to revive their fortune when they take on defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders in the Pepsi IPL 6 match on Tuesday.

Lacklustre KXIP would be looking to exploit the home conditions against a strong Kolkata outfit, who got back to winning ways, outplaying Sunrisers Hyderabad by 48 runs on Sunday at their home ground.

Kings XI had began their campaign on a winning note against Pune Warriors but had failed to sustain the momentum against Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals.

In fact, in their match against Rajasthan last night, they were handed a royal thrashing with the opposition running away with a comfortable six-wicket win.
The biggest problem for the Adam Gilchrist-led side is that it had failed to utilise its full 20 overs in the last two games.
The team folded in the 20th over against CSK, whereas it lost the plot in the 19th over against formidable the Royals.
For Kings XI to make a contest against KKR, who start as clear favourites at the PCA Stadium on Tuesday, they would need the likes of Gilchrist, David Hussey, Mandeep Singh, Gurkeerat Singh, R Sathish to fire in unison.
David Hussey has been the lone bright spot in KXIP's batting line up and they would expect him to continue his good show.
On the other hand, the Knight Riders are well aware that against a weak opposition they stand a good chance to improve their tally at the league stage and hence, they would everything to go for that kill.
KKR would look to repeat their power-packed batting performance of last night against Hyderabad.
It was a team effort and nothing less than that would satisfy the Knight Riders on Tuesday as well.

Teams from

Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir (captain), Manvinder Bisla (wk), Jacques Kalis, Yusuf Pathan, Manoj Tiwary, Eoin Morgan, Rajat Bhatia, Ryan McLaren, Pradeep Sangwan, Sunil Narine, Laxmipathy Balaji, Brendon McCullum (wk), Brad Haddin (wk), Ryan ten Doeschate, Sachithra Senanayake, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Sarabjit Ladda, Debabrata Das, Iqbal Abdulla, Mohammad Shami Ahmed.

Kings XI Punjab: Adam Gilchrist (captain & wk), Azhar Mahmood, Luke Pomersbach, David Hussey, David Miller, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Manpreet Gony, Nitin Saini, Parvinder Awana, Paul Valthaty, Piyush Chawla, Praveen Kumar, Rajagopal Sathish, Ryan Harris, Bhargav Bhatt, Bipul Sharma, Gurkeerat Mann Singh, Harmeet Singh Bansal, Manan Vohra, Aniket Choudhary, Mandeep Singh, Sandeep Sharma, Siddharth Chitnis, Sunny Singh.

Match facts
Tuesday April 16, 2013 (day/night)
Start time 16:00 local (10:30 GMT)

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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.