IPL 5 Preview: Kolkata Knight Riders Vs Kings XI Punjab Match 17
Eden Gardens will be the venue of match 17 of the IPL 5 tournament, on Sunday, April 15, 2012, when Kolkata Knight Riders host Kings XI Punjab.
Both teams have registered wins in their last games, and the match promises to be a tight contest. The Eden Gardens pitch revealed itself to be a slow one offering lots of turn in KKR’s match against Rajasthan Royals when slow left arm spinner Shakib Al Hasan was the most effective bowler.
That could affect the team compositions on the day and both teams could decide to rest their pace-men and choose to load their eleven with spinners. Lee is injured and out of the KKR squad against KXIP.
While the KKR batting line-up hasn’t set the stands on fire, Gautam Gambhir’s form against RCB, (64 runs of 33 balls) will encourage the hosts ahead of the game on Sunday. They will also rely on J Kallis’s all-round skills, Bisla’s keeping and batting, and the in-form Balaji’s restrictive bowling. With Shakib Hasan and Narine bowling well against RR, the KKR bowling appears to have a more settled look about it.
Shaun Marsh’s return to KXIP with a match winning knock of 64 bodes well for Gilchrist’s side. Mascarenhas has cemented his place with 5/25 in the game with PW and that should give KXIP a little more comfort, given that they have no marquee names in their bowling line-up.
With KKR’s graph on a clear upswing, and KXIP’s batting yet to settle down to any measure of consistency, Sunday’s hosts are favourites to register their third win of the tournament.
KKR’s probable eleven: Gautam Gambhir, Jacques Kallis, Ryan Ten Doeschate, M Bisla, Manoj Tiwary, Yusuf Pathan, Rajat Bhatia, Laxmi Shukla, Sunil Narine, L Balaji, Shakib Al Hasan.
Kings XI’s probable eleven: Adam Gilchrist, Paul Valthaty, Shaun Marsh, Mandeep Singh, David Hussey, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Bipul Sharma, Piyush Chawla, Parvinder Awana, Praveen Kumar, Harmeet Singh
About the Author (Author Profile)
Jinxatious is the Chief Editor of SportingAttitude.com
An avid writer, on an eclectic range of subjects, he brings to bear editorial experience garnered with a national newspaper in South-East Asia. He also has sportscasting experience, as a cricket commentator, and his passion for sport extends beyond Cricket, to Football, Tennis, and Olympic Sports.
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