TEAM KOLKATA VS BANGALORE
New lights added to end Knights’ plight
No Shoaib, But Chopra, Taibu In Sourav's Scheme
Arup Chatterjee I TNN
Kolkata: Shoaib Akhtar's in town at last but, thankfully, he is not being viewed, at least by those who matter, as the Knight who will just gallop in and rescue the damsel in distress. After four successive defeats, if there is still a fairytale ending waiting for the Kolkata Knight Riders in this inaugural season of the Indian Premier League, it's far away.
The midsummer night's dream can wait; Thursday at the Eden Gardens will be all about a hard-nosed approach to the Knights' next challenge. Akhtar was not named in the shortlist of 14 that coach John Buchanan announced on Wednesday, and it would suggest the Knights are willing to do more than just grab at straw.
The Bangalore Royal Challengers have arrived for Thursday's showdown with their own bag of woes but, under the changed circumstances, Rahul Dravid's men are no more the easy meat they may have seemed following the 140-run defeat to Sourav Ganguly & Co in the tournament opener some three weeks ago. Both desperately need a win to resurrect their title-hopes. Both start from scratch.
The departure of Australian and New Zealand players for national duty has hurt the Knight Riders more than the Royal Challengers. Among the missing men will be Kiwi Brendon McCullum, who had single-handedly destroyed the Bangalore outfit with a breathtaking innings of 158 in the IPL opener in Vijay Mallya's own backyard. Ironically, it's the batting that has been the bugbear of the Knights ever since. With the loss of early wickets setting them back time and again, the team think-tank will surely be bearing upon the problem.
"We'll play it differently this time," promised Ganguly, and the Knights have already created a few options for changes at the top. Mohammad Hafeez, who opened with Ganguly in the previous match, has been dropped, and included in the 14 are Delhi opener Aakash Chopra and Zimbabwean Tatenda Taibu. Given the 'comeback' by bowlers and more moderate totals, will the Knights be buying stability up the order at the expense of the explosive batting that has defined the Twenty20 format?
Ganguly, of course, was quick to present Chopra in a different light. "He was very successful in the domestic onedayers last season, and his strike-rate is usually above 100," the skipper said, perhaps throwing a strong hint on things to come. He was also strong in defence of his own lack of T20 form, perhaps also hinting that he will stay put in the opener's slot on Thursday.
In the "doing things differently", perhaps Ganguly will bring to his own game the essence and ethos of this format, where run-rates are more important than averages on most days. Where, more often than not, boldness in batting is not a choice but an inescapable compulsion.
'Heavyweights' McCullum and Ricky Ponting may have departed but Ganguly still has a lot of positives to bank on. In Pakistan's Umar Gul, he has found a very effective addition to the already impressive newball attack of Ishant Sharma and local lad Ashok Dinda. David Hussey is still around and Brad Hodge is a potential a match-winner in this format. Laxmi Ratan Shukla and Wriddhiman Saha are showing a great knack for T20 batting, and Debabrata Das has shown that he could join the party as well.
The men from Bangalore, languishing at the bottom of the eight-team table, will see their chance despite their poor run and the legacy of Monday's loss to Team Mohali. They have the material and, as Ganguly himself believes, "there are good days and there are bad ones."
With the dramatic fall in fortunes of 'favourites' like Team Chennai and with the IPL still a roller-coaster ride for almost every teams, there is hope yet for both the Knights and Challengers.
Source : TOI
AuthorTopic: IPL 2008 - Match 29 : KKR vs BRC- Thread (Read 7448 times)
