Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Knights take on giant killers, the Kerala Tuskers today





KKR is a new resurgent team, under an innovative captain, Gambhir. Kolkotta is now respected, after some great wins. The Kolkotta crowd may be back at the Eden Gardens. Now they face a team which is reputed for creating upsets and are giant killers at the Eden today.

Three great wins have brought momentum to KKR and they are looking for their fourth win. Both KKR and KTK started the competition with losses and were struggling in the bottom of the IPL Table. Both have turned around magnificently. The Knights have not committed mistakes in the last three matches. Also the Tuskers, who have beaten both Mumbai and Chennai. Both have momentum on their favour and this makes today's match thrilling to the core.

Both depend on batting. The bowling of both cannot be compared to the bowling of Mumbai or Chennai. Both seem to be equal with strengths and weaknesses.

Meanwhile, Mahela said that the DL system should be reviewed. " To my limited knowledge, they take the average scores and work it backwards., which I believe is not good enough in the shorter version of the game. Perhaps they should introduce a new system in such cases".

He is thrilled at the way the games are going for the IPL debutants. "It is tough to get things right after two losses. We are still not there but we are definitely heading in the right direction". said the great SL batsman, implying that there was still space for improvement in all the three departments of the game. Wiinning the toss is crucial and his partnership with Brendon was the turning point of the last game.

"I guess we are just helping the middle order as much as we can and Brendon is working really hard. He is consistent in his performance' said the professional batsman about his explosive opening partner. "We bowled well under the given conditions but we can still improve especially when the fielding side is put under pressure. We have to make sure we are not complacent and keep going".

Incidentally, Stephen Fleming, the CSK coach, lambasted the D/L method in T20. He said that it is not an excuse for the CSK defeat to Kochi. "No place for D/L in T20 matches" said the former Kiwi skipper.

"There is no no place for D/L in this format. How can one explain an addition of only three runs to the target? We had three full overs in hand and more importantly had six wickets in hand' said the formdidable coach after CSK' s seven wicket defeat at the hands of the giant killers, Kochi. The Kochi pitch offered good bounce and in spite of playing three quality seamers, runs flowed. A matter for alarm and despondency, but Fleming said " We bowled well. If you look at the stats, they scored about five sixes and played out nearly 25 dot balls in the first six overs. They swung at everything and a few came off".

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