Match Preview: King's Eleven Punjab vs Kolkata Knight Riders

Preview by Saurabh Somani

Ground Reality: The ground has hosted four matches already, though all have not been played on the same pitch. There have been some big totals scored, and one of the boundaries is short, which both teams would look to exploit. The weather forecast is for clear skies, so there should be a good day's cricket to look forward to.

The Teams: In my preview for the teams before their first match, I had written that Punjab have one advantage over Kolkata because their boat hasn't quite sunk as low yet. That gap has only widened, with Punjab stringing together some good victories, while Kolkata can't seem to do anything right - on and off the field.

Kolkata Knight Riders: They desperately need to manufacture a victory from somewhere, and get back the belief in the side. Had they had self-belief, they might well have pulled off a victory against Mumbai in their return match. Their one explosive batsman who looked to be in some kind of form is gone, and with Gayle's departure the pressure on McCullum to find his form is immense. The silver lining for them is that Hodge looks to have found some touch, while the bowlers put up an improved showing in their last match.

King's Eleven Punjab: Even though they lost to Kolkata the last time through Duckworth-Lewis, they'll go in this match as firm favourites. They have uncovered a good bowler in Yusuf Abdullah, while Irfan Pathan has got his outswinger going again, making him a difficult proposition to face. Sangakkara has been their rock in the middle order, and with Yuvraj too finding form in the last match, they seem to be settling down into a workable combination.
Contests to Watch:

Ishant Sharma vs Yuvraj Singh - They've played with each many times, and know each others games pretty well. It would be interesting to see if Ishant can exploit Yuvraj's initial hesitancy at the crease, or whether Yuvraj can come out swinging against Ishant.
Ajantha Mendis vs Sangakkara and Jayawardene - The young prodigy against his mentors - the current Sri Lannkan captain and the former one. Can Mendis use his variations to good effect against the men who've overseen his baptism in international cricket?

Numbers Game:
1 - The number of innings out of 11 that Shaun Marsh failed to cross 20, while playing for Punjab in IPL 2008. No wonder they miss him up the order.
3 - The number of 50+ partnerships that Kolkata has had this year. Only Mumbai has fewer (2) but they have the bowling to withstand that, while Kolkata doesn't.
Trivia:
Yuvraj Singh in-form has been one of the most outstanding Twenty20 batsmen, but he has under-performed while playing for Punjab. His average for them across all matches last year and this year is 24.72, while his average in other Twenty20 matches is 28, and in Twenty20 internationals it is 32.75. If he hadn't scored a 50 in his last match, the difference would have been even more stark.
Teams:

Kings XI Punjab (From): Karan Goel, Yuvraj Singh(c), Simon Katich, Kumar Sangakkara(w), Mahela Jayawardene, Irfan Pathan, Taruwar Kohli, Piyush Chawla, Yusuf Abdullah, Ramesh Powar, Vikramjeet Malik, Luke Pomersbach, Vikram RV Singh, Ajitesh Argal, Amanpreet Singh, Burt Cockley, Ranadeb Bose, Ravikant Shukla, Ryan Ninan, Sahil Kukreja, Sunny Sohal, Tanmay Srivastava, Uday Kaul, Wilkin Mota

Kolkata Knight Riders (From): Brendon McCullum(c), Chris Gayle, Saurav Ganguly, Bradley Hodge, Morne van Wyk(w), Wriddhiman Saha, Laxmi Shukla, Ajit Agarkar, Murali Kartik, Ashok Dinda, Ishant Sharma, Ajantha Mendis, Charl Langeveldt, Aditya Dole, Ameya Shrikhande, Abhisek Banerjee, Angelo Mathews, Moises Henriques, Anureet Singh, Anustup Majumdar, Arindam Ghosh, Avik Chowdhury, Bhavik Thaker, Chetan Suryavanshi, Debabrata Das, Dhiran Salvi, Gaurav Chabra, Gnaneswara Rao, Iqbal Abdulla, Ishwar Choudhary, Kshemal Waingankar, Mark Cameron, Mashrafe Mortaza, Mohammad Sanuth, Mohnish Parmar, Murtuza Hussain, Natraj Behera, Rajesh Verma, Ranadeb Bose, Rohan Banerjee, Sachin Rana, Sanjay Bangar, Sanjib Sanyal, Saurasish Lahiri, Shatrunjay Gaekwad, Sheldon Jackson, Siddarth Kaul, Sourav Sarkar, Sunny Singh, Vinit Indulkar, Yashpal Singh