Fight for momentum. Preview: KKR vs DC

Each team in IPL 4 played their first game and 5 out of 10 teams opened their account with victory. Unfortunately KKR and DC were ended on losing side in their opening games and they have great chance today to open the account of points. It will not going to be easy for both the teams to go in with relaxed mind in this game and pressure will be immense on both the teams. KKR’s skipper Gambhir will be under more pressure compared to DC’s Sangakkara because KKR never ended in TOP 5 in previous 3 editions while Deccan won the title in 2009. It will be a test of nerves for Gambhir & Co.

On paper, KKR looks far better team than DC. It has likes of explosive Yusuf Pathan, legendary Jacque Kallis, Indian opener Gautam Gambhir, Bengal Ranji  Captain Manoj Tiwary, superb English middle-order batsmen Eoin Morgan. KKR have all the ammunition this time to beat any team.  However bowling looks bit weak compared to batting, except Kallis there is no big name right now,  Brett Lee is on National duty , so he can’t feature today.

On the other hand, DC batting looks bit weak compared to KKR as they have only Kumar Sangakkara and JP Duminy as accomplished batsmen. DCs bowling is quite ok with Dale Steyn leading the bowlers pack and he is currently one of the finest fast bowler in the World Cricket. Pragyan Ozha have to raise his game today if  DC wants to make some impression in this game.

It will be interesting to see how Kallis will play against Dale Steyn as both are playing for South Africa and today they will be playting against each other. Kallis will open the batting for KKR while Dale Steyn will open the bowling for Deccan Chargers. It will going be interesting little battle in big contest. KKR have to forget their nightmarish loss to CSK before going into this game as they were cruising at one stage in reply to CSK'S 153/4, but Knight Riders lost wickets in a hurry, and required 9 from the last over, but finished at 151/7 and lost by just 2 runs. Gambhir have to come up the order in batting against Deccan Chargers as opening or one-down is the best place for Gambhir-The Batsman. Gambhir raised lot of question when he came into bat lower down the order against CSK in last game.

Great contest ready to sizzle the Eden Gardens tonight and it will be interesting to see how many fans come to watch this game in absence of KKR’s former skipper Sourav Ganguly. Fans from Kolkata declared after auction that they will not going to watch any of the KKRs game in absence of Sourav Ganguly. KKR starts as  favourite in this game but Deccan have the fire-power to surprise KKR. It is also going to be  important game for Ishant Sharma who is looking to make a come-back in Indian side. He bowled well in last game for Deccan and have to bowl well today against his ex-team.

Dhoni to face Gambhir in CSK Vs KKR

Duo won the World Cup for India last week with a superb partnership. Now team-mates of Team India, Gautam Gambhir and Mahendra Singh Dhoni will take on each other in IPL 4 opening match at Chennai. Till last year Dhoni was most expensive Indian player but scene has changed dramatically this year, Gambhir emerged as a most expensive player in this year’s auction. KKR bought him for $2.4 million which is more than what  any EPL player is earning. If price is high pressure will also be immense on Gambhir. On the contrary, Dhoni is under no pressure having won World Cup and he is defending champion and he will be leading same CSK team except Muralitharan who will don the Kochi jersey.

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Looking at KKR, it is completely revamped side. It is representing Bengal but there are only two known players from Bengal in this team. Manoj Tiwari(Bengal’s Ranji Captain) and seasoned all-rounder Laxmi Ratan Shukla. Apart from these two there is no other known face from Bengal featuring in KKR team. It will be challenge for Gambhir to unite this new team and get the performance out of them. KKR failed to won the IPL title in last 3 seasons and to add to their woes they always remain in bottom 3 in last 3 seasons. Former KKR captain Sourav Ganguly already paid the price of KKR’s poor performance and not playing in this year’s IPL as he failed to find any owner. Alongwith Gambhir, Yusuf Pathan is also key addition to this KKR line-up and he also fetched record price in the auction and much of KKR’s success will depend on Gambhir and Yusuf. They will miss the services of Brett Lee and Shakib Al Hasan who will be playing bi-lateral series in Bangladesh and will join this team after that series. So little set-back for KKR initially but now they have the players who can put up good performance and help them to win the tournament this year.

KKR Team Info:

Kolkata Knightriders

Gautam Gambhir(Captain), Yusuf Pathan, Manoj Tiwary, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Jaidev Unadkat, Iqbal Abdulla, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Manvinder Singh Bisla(Wicket-Keeper), Pradeep Sangwan, Rajat Bhatia, Sarabjit Ladda, Shami Ahmed, Shreevats Goswami (Foreign) Jacques Kallis, Brad Haddin(Wicket-Keeper), Shakib Al Hassan, Brett Lee, Eoin Morgan, Ryan ten Doeschate, James Pattinson.Dave Whatmore(Coach)

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CSK is defending champion. CSK won the title in last season under the captaincy of MS Dhoni. They defeated Sachin Tendulkar led  Mumbai Indians in last year’s IPL final to lift the trophy. CSK is  having almost same team  which played for them in last 3 seasons.The successfully retained all their star players  except Muralitharan. Under Dhoni’s captaincy they look formidable and playing at home in opening match is also an advantage for them. Their batting line-up looks very good with the likes of Vijay, Badrinath, Raina, Dhoni are capable enough to score big and quick runs, Michael Hussey will join this team after Bangladesh series which will give them more solidity. The have good bowling line-up and most importantly they have readymade team which is playing them for last 3 years. Dhoni will go into this game with lot of confidence and that gives CSK big advantage over KKR which is relatively new team.

Man who will be missed most in this match is ‘DADA’ Sourav Ganguly. KKR will certainly miss him. New rivalries going to take place from today as with IPL 4 friends will turn into foes.

Team Info:

Chennai Super Kings

Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Captain/Wicket-Keeper), Suresh Raina, Murali Vijay, Wriddhiman Saha(Wicket-Keeper), Ravichandran Ashwin, Subramanium Badrinath, Joginder Sharma, Sudeep Tyagi, Abhinav Mukund, Aniruddha Shrikant, Ganapathi Vignesh, K Vasudevdas, Shadb Jakati, Vijaykumar Yomahesh, (Foreign) Albie Morkel, Michael Hussey, Dwayne Bravo, Doug Bollinger, Scott Styris, Ben Hilfenhaus, Nuwan Kulasekera, Suraj Randiv, George Bailey, Faf du Plessis. Stephen Fleming(Coach)

Team India will go through acid test against Proteas ahead of QF

Team India's serious World Cup campaign starts from tomorrow with the match against Proteas. So far India were playing weaker teams in the tournament and yet they struggled. So Indians will be under tremendous pressure going into this match. India have lot of worries in  bowling, fielding, running between the wickets and top-order batting but remember India have little edge over Proteas according to the statistics of recent times and that suggests out of last 10 ODIs against Proteas, India won 6 of them. Something which can give boost to the Indian team but over all record of India against Proteas is poor which suggests out of 65 ODIs Proteas won 39. But when we talk about recent performance Indian team have little edge. 

 India's main worry in this World Cup is its bowling. So far bowling failed to pick up early wickets except for one match against Ireland. Indian bowlers are certainly struggling on the flat pitches of sub-continent. India's main worry are its regular spinner in Harbhajan Singh and Piyush Chawla, both failed to impress so far in the tournament. Harbhajan Singh have picked up only 2 wickets in 4 games although his economy is quite good but remember he is attacking bowler and expected to pick wickets rather than containing the batsmen. What to talk about leggie Piyush Chawla, 2 top wicket-takers in the tournament are leg-spinners and this guy Chawla struggled to pick the wickets in the conditions which favours the spinners and his economy is also poor. India is clearly struggling with 3rd seamer as well and captain Dhoni is completely confused in picking up right combination and that confusion reflects in his statements. I believe they have to continue with 2 pace -2 spin combination and they must replace Chawla with Ashwin in the game against South Africa just to check whether Ashwin fits the bill or not ahead of the knockout stage. I think  not playing Ashwin so far, Dhoni did it deliberately. I think he wanted to introduce him in a big match like this as a surprise package and I believe this can prove master-stroke as well.

Fielding and running between the wickets is also very big area of concern. India struggled badly in the outfield. India fielders allowed opposition batsmen to pick singles easily and also allow them to convert singles into 2s and 2s into 3s and thats not going to help because the opposition team supposed to get 270 in normal circumstances is ending up with 300 or more means 30-40 runs extra just because of poor fielding and extra pressure on Indian batting as well. India has dropped quite a few catches as well. If we look at the match against England Strauss was dropped by Harbhajan when he was new to the crease later in the same match Virat Kohli dropped Ian Bell and both these batsmen took the match away from India. Had those 2 catches taken then I believe result of that match would have been different. So lot to improve in the fielding and I think India have to employ faster fielders on the boundaries and slow fielders in the close-in because singles are anyways available even though field is up but it is important to stop extra runs which are taken when ball goes near the boundary and slow fielders don't able to throw the ball back quickly enough. India have to improve running between the wickets as well. So far we have seen India clearly struggled in this area as well in the tournament. In the first match Tendulkar got out because of poor calling. I think calling have to be precise and batsmen have to work hard in nets to set the good rhythm with their partners while running between the wickets, so that they can be in a sync with their partners in match while running.

Indian top-order batsmen are also struggling and they have to come good now, because one failure can cost dearly. Sachin, Shewag, Gambhir and Kohli have to bat well and out of these four, tow players have to take the anchor role. I think Sachin and Kohli have to play the role of anchor and Gambhir and Sehwag have to go after the bowling and that will be ideal situation for the middle-order batsmen where you have hitters like Yuvraj, Dhoni and Pathan who can easily capitalise on the good start given by the top-order batsmen. So Indian top-order have to take some responsibility and one or two of them have to carry their bat through the innings. We have seen how Indian team struggled to chase scores in last two matches where top-order failed. However, Yuvraj's form with both bat and ball is a big plus for India.


Squad:

Mahendra Singh Dhoni(Captain/WK), Virender Sehwag(Vice-Captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Ravichandran Ashwin, Piyush Chawla, Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar, Ashish Nehra, Munaf Patel. Gary Kirsten(Coach)

Talking about Proteas, I think they are the most balanced side in the World Cup.   Amla and DeVilliers are in great nick and batting looks very good as they possess one of the best batting line-up in the world which includes star batsmen like Jacques Kallis. However Kallis is not among the runs so far in the tournament but he is big match player and against India he is terriffic and in the match against India he will definitely going to make a big score because he loves Indian bowling very much..Proteas won  their first two matches  convincingly but lost to England in a cliffhanger and that will be playing on their mind in this match and they will certainly play better cricket compare to the match against England and will not going to repeat those mistakes which they did against England. Proteas lower-order batting is a bit of concern which often cracks under-pressure and they have to work on this weakness. I think they must promote Morne Wan Vyk up the  order and send Kallis or DeVilliers down the order just to consolidate the lower middle-order.  

Proteas are the best bowling side in the tournament in terms of pace and accuracy. They have great variation in their bowling department. They have two terrific opening fast bowlers in Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel and Indian batting is quite vulnerable against genuine pace and bounce. They possess great spin weapons in leg-spinner Imran Tahir, left-arm spinner Robin Peterson and off-spinner Johan Botha but since Tahir is injured I think they will go in with Johan Botha. They can also think of playing Lonwabo Tsotsobe who had great success against India in the last series and pace is also the Indian weakness so there is no harm in going with pace attack. Felding is the Proteas biggest asset and I must say Proteas starts as favourites to win this game. Imran Tahir is the joint second leading wicket-taker in the tournament and he was trump card for Proteas in previous matches but I think he play or don't play doesn't matter in the match against India because Indians play spin well.


Squad:

Greame Smith(Captain), Hashim Amla, Jacque Kallis, AB DeVilliers(WK), Morne Van Wyk(WK), Jean-Paul Duminy, Collin Ingram, Faf DuPlessis, Johan Botha, Robin Peterson, Imran Tahir, Dale Steyn, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Morne Morkel, Wayne Parnell. Corrie Van Zyl(Coach)

Wicket at VCA Stadium in Nagpur will going to be a belter and will allow score in excess of 300 if teams bat well. I think toss will not going to be a factor in this match because wicket will going to be the same for entire 100 overs and there is no problem of dew as well because we are in mid-March. VCA stadium have the history of big scores. So it will going to be run-feast for the batsmen and nightmare for the bowlers especially Indian bowlers who need some assistance from the wicket.

Missed catches cost Pakistan dearly. Dutch face Indian challenge

 ‘Unpredictable is dangerous but it is vulnerable as well’ and that’s what proved in the yesterday’s game between Pakistan and New Zealand where everybody expected Pakistan to win this game but once again unpredictability haunted Pakistan in this game. What went wrong with most mercurial side in the world in this game? Was  It  great hitting by Ross Taylor or was it poor bowling by Pakistani bowlers, well I must deny to all these reasons. There is an old saying ‘catches win matches’ and yesterday  Pakistani wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal dropped as many as 4 catches and when you drop that many catches then you never end the game on a winning note.

I believe Kamran Akmal is completely out of sorts since that Sydney test-match saga where he dropped too many catches and came under scrutiny of match-fixing. Since then his confidence is down and he is not even performing well with the bat and he is dropping catches regularly. I think Pakistan have to find his replacement as early as possible because if he drop catches in knockout round then it will be difficult for Afridi and Pakistan to win the elite trophy which entire Pakistan is  hoping for. Else Pakistan team management have to give him confidence and back him to do well behind the wickets.

Pakistan will never forget those last 4 over overs in which Ross Taylor hit as many as 92 runs and Taylor hit those runs after getting 3 reprieve from the wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal. Taylor was dropped on zero and after that he was dropped thrice. Taylor hit 7 towering sixes and put Pakistani bowlers under enermous pressure. I think dropped catches also affected the morale of the Pakistani bowlers especially Shoaib Akhtar who bowled erratic spell at the death and gone for plenty at the hands of Ross Taylor. Once Pakistani bowling was taken for task it became difficult for Pakistani team to forget that dangerous hitting and that played big time on their minds when they came into bat and lost their wickets in a hurry. I think they were completely under shock and awe of that power hitting by Ross Taylor which they never expected from Kiwis who were tagged as losers before this game.

Kiwis now back in contention for the spot and now looks very threatening. They will now certainly pose few problems to the oppositions in coming matches. From their point of view form of Ross Taylor was important and till yesterday Taylor was not in great form but this match against Pakistan provided Taylor that oxygen which he was waiting for past few months. Taylor scored brilliant century after long time and celebrated his 27th birthday with this blitzkrieg knock. Now Kiwis look formidable side and can beat anybody because they are not short of talent at all. They needed a kick and they got in the last match and now  they can also hope for going into semis. For Pakistan it is better that they erase this game quickly from their minds and focus hard on coming matches and don’t repeat the mistakes they made in this match. Top-Order failure is the big concern for Pakistan right from the start of the tournament and their top 3 batsmen Hafeez, Shehzad and Kamran Akmal have to fire in coming matches. Everytime they can’t rely on Misbah, Younis and Umar Akmal to bail them out of the trouble.

Dutch face Indian challenge

Today Dutch will face Indian Challenge at Kotla. Win in this match will seal the  quarter-final berth  for Team India and loss will bring lot of embarrassment. Dutch side is very good side and we all saw how well they played against England and fought till the end. Batting of the Dutch team is quite good and Indian team can’t afford to take them lightly. Team India and Dhoni faced  lot of criticism from media and cricket lovers due to the persistence with Piyush Chawla in previous 2 matches where leggie Chawla did plenty of charity with the balls and failed to pick up wickets. Considering that 2 top wicket-takers(Shahid Afridi and Imran Tahir) in this World Cup are leg-spinner,  it was expected from Chawla also to pick up lot of wickets but he failed to live upto the expectations and now he has to face the axe.

I think India have the chance to experiment in this match and they have to rest Zaheer and pick up Nehra and give him match practice ahead of the big games and knockout stage. It will also be intersting to see whether R.Ashwin get into the final squad or not. If he’s included in the squad then it will be interesting to see how Harbhajan Singh bowls in tandem with Ashwin as both of them are off-spinners but both are completey different in style. So its time for the  experiment for India to find out right combination ahead of the big matches.  Dutch team however looked impressive in this tournament so far although they failed to win the matches but whatever cricket they played is really impressive and they can pose lot of threat to the Indian team. Peter Borren and his men are hoping of pulling out an upset and if Dutch side play well and execute their plans successfully then we can also expect the unexpected.

Kotla pitch is always known for its slow and low nature and it will be difficult to score runs on Kotla track and I think total of 250 runs will prove winning total. Remember this is the gorund where legendary Indian spinner Anil Kumble  picked up all the 10 Pakistani wickets in an innings of the test match and became second bowler in the world after Jim Laker to achieve this feat and he is the only Indian bowler who holds this record.

Preview: Super Sunday of Group B in ICC Cricket World Cup 2011

It is  Super Sunday tomorrow as double header is in offering for the Cricket Lovers in World Cup.

England will take on South Africa in the morning.   

Looking at the first match between South Africa and England this is going to be a crucial match from  England's perspective after their drubbing against Ireland at Bengaluru. England's major problem is their bowling which has not come good on most occasions in this World Cup. England gave more than 300 runs per match they played so far and out of 3 matches they played 2 matches were against minnows like Netherland and Ireland. So big problem ahead for the England in a match against South Africa which possess superb batting line-up and all their batsmen must be licking their bats to go after hapless English bowlers. Strauss is having plenty of problems going into this must win match. Fielding of the English team is also not upto the mark as they are dropping catches like kids. England have to thank Billy Bowden for their lucky escape against India but that will not happen everyday and England have to play out of their skin to beat Proteas. Andrew Strauss and Andy Flower have to come out with new plan to counter Proteas. England problems get worse as they have to play in Chennai which will going to be a turner and Proteas possess 3 spinners in their ranks and spin is the biggest enemy of the English battng. Tough times ahead of Strauss & Co.

Proteas are currently leading the Group B table and looks invincible. From Amla and DeVilliers are in great nick and batting looks very good as they possess one of the best batting line-up in the world which includes star batsmen like Jacques Kallis. Although Proteas have great batting line-up but they have to be careful against Greame Swann who is having lot of success against them.Proteas won both their matches convincingly and go into this match to strike the hat-trick of victories. Proteas are the best bowling side in the tournament in terms of pace and accuracy. They have great variation in their bowling department. They have two terrific opening fast bowlers in Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel and they possess great spin weapons in leg-spinner Imran Tahir, left-arm spinner Robin Peterson and off-spinner Johan Botha and they are playing on one of the biggest turner in India. Fielding is the Proteas biggest asset and I must say Proteas starts as favourites to win this game. 

India will take on confident Ireland in afternoon.

India will take on Ireland in the afternoon at Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru. This match was not rated very high till last week but suddenly this match becomes very important and big for Team India because Ireland is coming in this match after causing big upset of the tournament as they beat England at the same venue. Ireland chased down mammoth score of 300 in that match and stunned England by winning it convincingly. Kevin O'Brien was their star in that match who scored fastest century of the World Cup as he scored 50 ball 100 against England and won the match single-handedly for Ireland. 

India's bowling woes continues in this tournament so far as they have also given average 300 runs in both the matches they played so far like England. But I must say bowling is not that bad as it is presented because India played both their matches on placid wickets and they were also unlucky as far as umpiring decisions are concerned. India will certainly play 3 fast bowlers in this match as Ashish Nehra is declared fit and Piyush Chawla will pay price for the two sixes hit by Bresnan on his bowling in the match against England which resulted in tie. India have to improve their fielding drastically if they want to advance further in the tournament. So far fielding is the weakest point of Team India and thats why bowlers also look ordinary if they are not backed by the fielding. Indian captain MS Dhoni have to show aggression in the field placing rather than setting defensive field and allow the opposition batsmen to rotate the strike which eventually reduce the pressure. MS Dhoni is making same mistake again and again and he has to learn big lesson from the last match when he was forced to bring the field in due to batting Power Play taken by England and immediately Team India got the grip of the match as they picked up 3 wickets due to forced attacking field. Indian batting is in top form but they have to be careful against Ireland because you never know when you will hit on the face by minnows also like Strauss and Co. hit badly by Ireland in last match. I think India must promote Yusuf Pathan in this match who was deprived of long batting stint in last tow matches. Bowling of Ireland will certainly suit very much to Pathan's batting style.

As far Ireland is concerned they don't think much about the quarter-finals or semi-finals. They will not going to lose anything even they lose this match because they are be under-dogs in this match. Ireland will try and repeat their heroics of last match and if that happens then India will come into tremendous pressure. Irish side defeated Pakistan in last World Cup. They defeated England in this World Cup and they will be hoping to beat India as well. Brien brothers and Mooney will certainly create lot of problems for India. Irish side is also very good fielding unit and they will certainly give their 100 percent in the field in-order to beat India. Remember Irish team  don't have any pressure going into this match and that will play crucial role in the outcome of this match because India will be under-pressure from the word go in this match. India have to take this match very seriously and have to beat Irish side convincingly. 

Kevin O'Brien(Star of Ireland victory over England)

Pitch will going to be belter at the Chinnaswamy Stadiium and this match will definitely turn out to be a high-scoring match like the previous two matches. So Super Sunday is going to offer tow mouth-watering games and it will going to be a great treat for the cricket lovers.