Kings XI Punjab will have to perform or perish

Having revived its semifinal hopes with a morale-boosting six-wicket win over table topper Delhi Daredevils, Kings XI Punjab will look to continue its winning form against Deccan Chargers in its must-win Indian Premier League match here on Sunday.

With 12 points from 12 matches and only one match left after this, Punjab will have to beat Deccan Chargers, which has 12 points too — but with a match in hand — if it has to be in the running for the remaining three semifinal spots; Daredevils has already reserved its place in the last four.

Inconsistent so far

Kings XI has not been a consistent side in this year’s IPL, having failed to establish a winning momentum but its win over Daredevils on Friday has shown that it can beat any team in the tournament on its day.

Yuvraj Singh’s side will have the psychological advantage going into the match as it had beaten Adam Gilchrist’s men by three wickets in their earlier meeting.

What will boost Kings XI’s confidence further is the return to form of fit-again Australian fast bowler Brett Lee, whose man-of-the-match winning three for 15 against Delhi kept its semifinal hopes alive.

Welcome return

Lee has added sting to the Kings XI bowling department which also has tough competition within, with South African Yusuf Abdulla warming the bench. Lee bowled with fire and penetration to make life difficult for Delhi batsmen. He also got ample support from S. Sreesanth and Irfan Pathan.

In the spin department, Piyush Chawla has been doing a decent job of choking the run flow though without much luck with wickets.

Among the batsmen, Kumar Sangakkara has been in consistent form and Yuvraj has been among the top run-getters though he has not exactly set South Africa on fire so far. Irfan has been chipping in with useful runs in the lower order.

Mahela Jayawardene, who is suffering from a hamstring injury is unlikely to return to the side, as indicated by Yuvraj after the match against Delhi.

Deccan Chargers will have to get over what Glichrist called “cricket suicide” against Delhi. The middle order will have to stop gifting away wickets and focus on finishing strongly. The side will also have to show improvement in the fielding department.

Rohit Sharma, who has failed in his last three outings, is due a big score while Gilchrist could be tempted to bring back Herschelle Gibbs at the top and push T. Suman down the order after Luke Pomersbach failed against Delhi.

Sri Lankan veteran Chaminda Vaas’s impressive form after sitting out in the early part of the event would in come handy for Gilchrist while Pragyan Ojha has been consistent in the spin department.

R.P. Singh, though, will have to return to his wicket-taking ways to create trouble in the Kings XI top order.

Match #49 Preview: Kings XI Punjab vs Deccan Chargers

The Conditions The conditions have shown themselves to be conducive to batting in the previous matches, and the teams will look to take advantage of them, especially in the powerplay overs. The weather is forecast to be mainly sunny, so it should be a fine day's cricket.

The Teams The importance of this match for both teams cannot be stressed enough. A win will set them firmly on the path to the semi-finals, and a loss will set them firmly on the path to the travel agent for flight tickets home. Well not quite, but a loss will hurt their chances immeasurably.

Deccan Chargers: They have the two points more than Punjab, in as many number of games played. After their whirlwind start, they have tapered off a bit, winning just 2 of their next 7 games. However quite a few of their losses have been in extremely tight games that could have gone either way, so they can take heart from the fact that they have been in the running for 99% of the games. But ultimately it's winning games that will get them further in the tournament and they have to learn to close out tight games. If they do win, it will have to be their batting that will do it, since it is by far their most potent weapon.

Kings Eleven Punjab: They have also had an up-and-down campaign, but will take a lot of heart from their win against table-toppers Delhi. They put in a top-notch bowling performance and never let Delhi's powerful line-up find its feet. Up against a similarly powerful line-up in Hyderabad, they would hope for a repeat of the last match. Their batting would have looked solid had Jayawardene been available, but Luke Pomerersbach has not been an adequate replacement so far. However he is capable of hitting it big, and Punjab would be hoping that the fact that he's due for a big one comes good for them in this match.

Contests to Watch

Brett Lee vs Adam Gilchrist and Andrew symonds - It's always a great sight when players who are team-mates take on each other, but it's all the more enticing when the players in question happen to be in great form. Lee and Symonds are both coming back after layoffs, while Gilchrist is retired, but to see them perform you'd never guess it.

Pragyan Ojha vs Yuvraj Singh - Ojha has had a wondeful tournament so far, and against a player known to have a weakness for spin, he should be licking his lips. Yuvraj generally comes in at 4 or 5, while Ojha will bowl the middle overs, so there is a good chance of this contest materializing.

Numbers Game:

1 - The number of bowlers on each side (min. 8 overs) who have an economy rate of under 6. for Punjab it's Brett Lee with 5.33, while for Hyderabad it's Rohit Sharma with 5.86

6 - The most number of balls that Punjab have had left, while successfully chasing a target. They have never successfully chased a target with more than 6 balls to spare.

Trivia: Rohit Sharma's strike rate has been the second least amongst Hyderabad's specialist batsmen. Though he is second on the run scorers list, Symonds, Smith, Gilchrist, Suman and Gibbs have all scored their runs at a faster pace than him. Only Venugopal Rao has a lower strike rate than him.

Who was the first Test cricketer to finish his Test career with over 2000 runs but without a century? Answer and win KF airtickets

Teams:

Deccan Chargers (From): Adam Gilchrist(w/c), Herschelle Gibbs, Tirumalsetti Suman, Rohit Sharma, Andrew Symonds, Venugopal Rao, Dwaraka Ravi Teja, Ryan Harris, Harmeet Singh, Rudra Pratap Singh, Pragyan Ojha, VVS Laxman, Scott Styris, Abhinav Kumar, Arjun Yadav, Chamara Silva, Chaminda Vaas, Doddapaneni Kalyankrishna, Dwayne Smith, Halhadar Das, Jaskaran Singh, Manvinder Bisla, Nuwan Zoysa, Paidikalva Vijaykumar, Sarvesh Kumar, Shoaib Ahmed, Azhar Bilakhia

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

Unbelievable Rohit wins a lost cause for DC

With this win DC move one step closer to the semis, while for KKR this is their 9th defeat in a row.

Spare a thought for McCullum, he has done everything that he could and still KKR dont seem to finish it off. This is a heartbreaking loss for them and especially after that loss to RCB in the previous game. It seems KKR are not destined to win a game as cruelly victory is snatched from their grasp for the second game in a row.

What an unbelievable match it was. KKR did everything but win. Mortaza had 21 runs in his kitty but still could not win it in the end. Tempers flared after the no-ball was called in the final over, and then KKR as a whole lost it. The momentum swung decisively towards DC as Rohit slammed home the advantage.

DC started off well with Gilly and Gibbs getting quick runs. Then KKR pulled things back thanks to a lovely spell from Karthik and Hodge. Symonds was run out when 34 was needed and it seemed that was game over for DC.

Rohit Sharma: Definitely there was pressure, but I thought if both of us bat six balls we can get any target. The wicket was coming on nicely. After hitting a boundary of the no-ball, I thought 16 of 6 was gettable on this surface. The bowling is coming out well, and it is clicking and very happy to contribute to the team.

Gilchrist: I thought we burned another one. Rao was fantastic, he held his nerve and backed himself. Not pleased with the way we are finishing with the ball. Glad to drag 2 points from this one. Their spinners did a very good job. It is a difficult ground to defend on. I thought Symo was the one, but Rohit played some great innings last year and to stand up at the crucial time was very pleasing. All was not lost if we missed out today, we will be back in 12 hours tomorrow and hopefully fresh enough to be up for that.

McCullum: First of all I want to apologise for the actions out there. It was just pure passion and emotion, and something I am not proud of. We are disappointed as a team, we tried our hearts out today and things have not gone our way. We just got to stay positive and confident. We got to keep getting up and come back. I guess the decision will be debated long and hard over a couple of beers over the night and over the next few weeks. But we have got a committed bunch and we are completely dedicated to turning this around.

Rohit Sharma is the Man of the Match for his blitzkreig in the end.