By S Janakiram
Rocked by two consecutive defeats, Kolkata Knight Riders badly need a win as they take on an equally desperate South Australian Redbacks in their next Champions League Twenty20 match on Tuesday.
Published: Sep 26, 2011, 03:47 PM (IST)
Edited: Sep 26, 2011, 03:47 PM (IST)
After two losses, Kolkata Knight Riders desperately need a win to keep their morale high © AFP
By S Janakiram
Hyderabad: Sep 26, 2011
Rocked by two consecutive defeats, Kolkata Knight Riders badly need a win as they take on an equally desperate South Australian Redbacks in their next Champions League Twenty20 match on Tuesday.
Twice, Kolkata lost to Somerset — in qualifying and yesterday — and now need to do well in the remaining three group stage matches.
The Australian side is also coming into the match after suffering a heavy 50-run defeat against Warriors and tomorrow’s contest promises to be a fiercely-fought duel, as neither side would like to face an early exit from the event.
Despite defeat, KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir was able to draw some positives. He will hope that veteran Jacques Kallis and big-hitting Yusuf Pathan would continue to score heavily.
Both the batsmen are in good form and it was on the back of their solid show that Kolkata could set a stiff target of 162 against Somerset.
More than anything, skipper Gambhir himself would be eager to get back into the groove as he is coming into the tournament after suffering a concussion and didn’t make a great start by getting out for a duck on first ball he faced.
The England ODI series is looming large and Gambhir would like to test his fitness and set the tempo.
Kolkata also need to search deep into its bowling woes as the frontline bowlers are leaking too many runs. Roelof van der Merwe ripped apart their attack yesterday and Somerset were scoring at a run-rate of almost 10 till 12 overs.
Although the bowlers made a recovery in the end but the damage done at the start was beyond redemption and they ended up losing the match.
Redbacks too are struggling with both batting and bowling and will have raise their level as Kolkata are very much capable of coming out of difficult situation.
Redbacks need skipper Michael Klinger, Callum Ferguson and experienced paceman Shaun Tait to fire.
Teams:
Kolkata Knight Riders (Probable): Gautam Gambhir (c), Manvinder Bisla (wk), Jacques Kallis, Manoj Tiwary, Yusuf Pathan, Ryan ten Doeschate, Shakib Al Hasan, Rajat Bhatia, Iqbal Abdulla, Brett Lee, Lakshmipathy Balaji.
South Australia Redbacks (Probable): Daniel Harris, Michael Klinger (c), Cameron Borgas, Callum Ferguson, Dan Christian, Tom Cooper, Tim Ludeman (wk), Aaron O’Brien, Adil Rashid, Nathan Lyon, Shaun Tait.
Time: 20.00 local (14.30 GMT)
