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Kolkata: Plagued by inconsistency throughout this season, Kolkata Knight Riders have their task cut out as they take on a strong and confident Delhi Daredevils in their return leg Indian Premier League encounter on Wednesday.
Having slipped to the sixth place in the IPL tree after Rajasthan Royals' stunning two-run victory over Deccan Chargers last night, the Knight Riders now face a win-or-perish situation in their semifinal aspiration.
In contrast, the Delhi outfit second behind leaders Mumbai Indians, have no such worry as four consecutive wins have virtually assured them a place in the semi-finals.
For the local side, it has been a story of one step forward and two steps backward. Their loss to bottom-placed Kings XI Punjab at home jeopardised their semifinal aspirations and skipper Sourav Ganguly will have an unenviable task to lift the team morale ahead of tomorrow's match.
With five more matches to go, Knights cannot afford to lose at the moment and it will be interesting to see how the side coped up with the situation with the big challenges lying ahead.
The KKR think-tank is struggling to find the right combination of the side and stumper Wriddhiman Saha -- nursing a sore left thumb - is not a certainty for Wednesday's match.
If their batting clicked with the hard-hitting opener Chris Gayle firing on all cylinders against Kings XI, their bowlers let the team down after failing to defend a challenging 200.
Ganguly's surprised selection Jaydev Unadkat ahead of experienced Ishant Sharma did not click as the rookie left-arm pacer bled boundaries while the likes of Angelo Mathews, Murali Kartik and Ajit Agarkar too conceded 10-plus an over to see Knights go down.
Ishant, however, is expected to play on Wednesday. With Gayle coming to full force, Ganguly must be a relieved man but there would be a different kind of dilemma for the skipper who will have some tricky time picking the side.
Ganguly rested New Zealand's Brendon McCullum in their last match but in-form opener is likely to be picked in their must-win match against the Delhi outfit that will put the team think-tank in a difficult situation.
Gayle in explosive form means that Ganguly may have to drop middle order batsman David Hussey, who too is in good knick. Ganguly also may take risk of omitting medium-pace all-rounder Angelo Mathews or strike bowler Shane Bond.
Meanwhile, the Gautam Gambhir-led Delhi side have the advantage of winning the first leg and are now on a roll with four wins on the trot.
Fiery Virender Sehwag is due for a big knock, but yet their batting has been their main strength this season with in-form David Warner, who scored a century against KKR in their first leg, Dinesh Karthik and coming to the fore of Paul Collingwood.
The bowling, which already has the likes of Farveez Maharoof, Pradeep Sangwan and Amit Mishra in spinners, will get a further boost with the arrival of Ashish Nehra, who has joined the ranks after recovering from a shoulder injury.
Teams from
Kolkata Knight Riders Sourav Ganguly (capt), Chris Gayle, Brendon McCullum (wk), Manoj Tiwary, Cheteshwar Pujara, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), David Hussey, Ajit Agarkar, Murali Kartik, Shane Bond, Ishant Sharma, Jaydev Unadkat, Harshad Khadiwale, Varun Aaron, Charl Langeveldt, Iqbal Abdulla, Eklakh Ahmed, Ajantha Mendis, Mashrafe Mortaza, Chirag Pathak, Ashok Dinda, Rohan Gavaskar, Owais Shah, Brad Hodge, Laxmi Ratan Shukla and Ganapati Vignesh.
Delhi Daredevils Gautam Gambhir (capt), David Warner, Virender Sehwag, Paul Collingwood, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Kedar Jadhav, Daniel Vettori, Rajat Bhatia, Amit Mishra, Farvez Maharoof, Pradeep Sangwan, Ashish Nehra, Dirk Nannes, Wayne Parnell, AB de Villiers, Shashi Ranjan, Tillekeretne Dilshan, Avishkar Salvi, Moises Henriques, Joginder Singh, Sarabjeet Ladda, Sarandeep Singh, Mithun Manhas, Andrew McDonald and Umesh Yadav.
Match facts
Wednesday April 7, 2010 (day/night)
Start time 20:00 local (14:30 GMT)
