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Kolkata: The Knight Riders are on a high after their opening match win, while Bangalore are packed with in-form players who've had good years.
Former India skipper and current Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Anil Kumble said he was looking forward to the challenge of playing in the third IPL and hoped his team would better their last season's second place finish this year.
Royal Challengers finished runners-up when they lost the finals against Deccan Chargers in the second edition of the twenty20 event last year in South Africa.
Sourav Ganguly playing a home game in Kolkata will only motivate the Prince of Kolkate even more. His leadership in the tournament opener was one of the reasons the Knight Riders won the game. And if he finds form with the bat then Kolkata could be put up a great performance. The form of Angelo Mathews and Brad Hodge is heart-warming. The win they registered against Deccan Chargers after looking down and out twice in the match must have been confidence boosting and should see a better team performance.
The Royal Challengers Bangalore team, on the other hand, will be playing their first match of IPL 2010. A team of Jacques Kallis, Manish Pandey, Eoin Morgan and Rahul Dravid would fancy their chances against any team. Add to the mix the in-form Dale Steyn and they could be difficult to beat.
While the Knight Riders would want to use the momentum from the first match, the Royal Challengers would like to start their title campaign with a win. Both teams could try some of the newer faces in the team early in the tournament to gauge their bench strength before their overseas stars come back from national duty.
Teams news
Kolkata Knight Riders: They didn't play Ajit Agarkar because of a calf strain and, if he doesn't recover, they could field the same XI once again. David Hussey will get here along with White after the Sheffield Shield final. They'll have to wait until the end of March for Brendon McCullum.
Squad (from): Manoj Tiwary, Brad Hodge, Sourav Ganguly (capt), Cheteshwar Pujara, Owais Shah, Angelo Mathews, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Laxmi Shukla, Murali Kartik, Charl Langeveldt, Ishant Sharma, Ganapathi Vignesh, Ajit Agarkar, Eklak Ahmid, Ajantha Mendis, Chirag Pathak, Varun Aaron, Ashok Dinda, Rohan Gavaskar, Iqbal Abdulla, Harshad Khadiwale
Bangalore Royal Challengers: South African contingent, which also includes Dale Steyn, Roelof van der Merwe, and Dillon du Preez. Apart from the Proteas, the only overseas player with Bangalore at the moment is Eoin Morgan, who is a certainty in the middle order. Kevin Pietersen will arrive after the Bangladesh Tests, Ross Taylor and Steven Smith after the Trans-Tasman Trophy, and Cameron White after the Sheffield Shield final.
Squad (from): Jacques Kallis, Robin Uthappa, Rahul Dravid, Virat Kohli, Eoin Morgan, Manish Pandey, Mark Boucher (wk), Roelof van der Merwe, Praveen Kumar, Anil Kumble (capt), Abhimanyu Mithun, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Dale Steyn, Balachandra Akhil, KP Appanna, Dillon du Preez, Shreevats Goswami, Vinay Kumar, Sridharan Sriram
Pitch and conditions
Eden Gardens, Kolkata. This is the home ground of the Kolkata Knight Riders. Playing at Eden Gardens can be an overwhelming experience and it might affect some of the visiting Royal Challengers Bangalore players. A charged-up Kolkata could turn up at the ground to vociferously support their dada and the team.
The city will give a hot and humid reception to RCB supporters, but expect the weather at the stadium to be just right for a game of Twenty20: sunny with no threat of rain.
Stats and trivia
Match facts
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Start time 16:00 local (10:30 GMT)
