Friday, April 17, 2015

Clash of last season's finalists, as KXIP take on KKR - A preview



The second match of Saturdays's double header at the MCA stadium in Pune, sees a repeat of last years final with Kings XI Punjab, the home team, taking on defending champions the Kolkata Knight Riders. With both teams coming off a loss in their previous matches, they will not like to lose ground early on with CSK and RR having perfect records so far.

                       Punjab are not finding comfort at their makeshift home ground of Pune, having lost two in two there.Their biggest worry is the form of the big hitters, Glenn Maxwell and David Miller. While the Aussie seems hell bent on playing big shots every ball and perishing sooner rather than later, the SA left hander has got his eye in before throwing his wicket away.The fifth bowler has also proved costly with no wickets for Rishi Dhawan in two matches.The rest of the team looks fine and its just a question of things clicking together at the same time.

                      KKR had their 10 match winning streak at the IPL ended finally at the hands of RCB. They have had quite a few days rest after that to regroup and plan for the future games, especially with key allrounder Shakib Al Hasan leaving for national duty. In all likelihood, he will be replaced by another all rounder, either of Ryan Ten Deschate or Azhar Mahmood. The KKR bowlers suffered at the hands of Gayle the other night, and their opponents tonight have many big hitters of their own. However its good to remember how Piyush Chawla had accounted for Glenn Maxwell on both their meetings last season. Chawla has to play for this one reason, no matter what. Gautam Gambhir is in terrific form with two fifties and has the backing of a solid batting lineup.An interesting clash on the cards for sure



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