On paper it appears a mismatch — the defending champions against the bottom-placed team in the last edition of the Indian Premier League — but don’t read too much into it for sparks are bound to fly when the Deccan Chargers clash with the Kolkata Knight Riders here on Friday night.
IPL-3 opener promises excitement unlimited given the traditional rivalry between the teams. The Chargers have invariably found the Knights as their opening opponents in the last two seasons. The head-to-head record is even but the momentum understandably is with the Chargers. They won the first game in IPL-2 by a whopping eight-wicket margin and then rode on a blinder by Rohit Sharma to score 25 runs in the final over, including a last-ball six, to romp home with six wickets to spare.
Adam Gilchrist and his boys will walk on to the D.Y. Patil Stadium turf armed with that confidence as they launch their campaign with renewed vigour. That apart, the Chargers have fond memories of Friday’s venue — they had won their first IPL game, against Mumbai in the first season here, thanks to Gilchrist’s swashbuckling century. The captain’s eyes light up on being reminded of his past heroics. He would be eager to repeat the feat and provide the impetus to his team.
Herschelle Gibbs, Andrew Symonds, Rohit Sharma, T. Suman, Ravi Teja and Y. Venugopal Rao would be expected to contribute with the bat for the Chargers while the bowling responsibilities will lie with last season’s highest wicket-taker R.P. Singh, who would look to strike the purple patch again.
In seamer Chaminda Vaas, probing left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha, leg-spinner Rahul Sharma and part-timers Rohit Sharma, Venugopal and Symonds, the Chargers have bowling variety.
However, the champs are at a disadvantage when it comes to foreign players. Four — Kemar Roach and Dwayne Smith of the West Indies; and Australians Ryan Harris and Mitchell Marsh — of the eight allowed in the squad are tied up with national duties and will not be available for at least the first two games.
Kolkata will miss the services of West Indies captain Chris Gayle and New Zealand’s Brendon McCullum, which means they will have to heavily depend on Brad Hodge in the batting department along with Sourav Ganguly.
Having wrested back captaincy from McCullum, Ganguly is yearning to turn KKR’s fortunes around. Considering his record, the former Indian captain sure has it in him to get the players to rally around him. With the likes of bowlers Charl Langeveldt, Ishant Sharma, Ashok Dinda, Ajantha Mendis, allrounders Ajit Agarkar, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, batsmen Rohan Gavaskar, Manoj Tiwary and a host of ICL returnees, it remains to be seen if Dada can do it.
Squads
Deccan Chargers (from): Adam Gilchrist, Herschelle Gibbs, Andrew Symonds, V.V.S. Laxman, Rohit Sharma, R.P. Singh, Chaminda Vaas, Pragyan Ojha, Rahul Sharma, T. Suman, D. Ravi Teja, Venugopal Rao, Anirudh Singh, B. Sumanth, Mohnish Mishra, Harmeet Singh, Azhar Bilakhia, A. Ashish Reddy, Arjun Yadav.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Sourav Ganguly, Varun Aaron, Cheteshwar Pujara, Owais Shah, Manoj Tiwary, Charl Langeveldt, Murali Kartik, Ishant Sharma, Brad Hodge, Angelo Mathews, Ajantha Mendis, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Wriddhiman Saha, Ashok Dinda, Ajit Agarkar Rohan, Gavaskar, Harshad Khadiwale, Chirag Pathak, Eklakh Ahmed, Ganapathi Vignesh, Iqbal Abdulla.