Bangalore seek a welcome win (Preview)

Into its third week, IPL, 2011 has already has had some unexpected trends to offer with none of the team emerging as a clear favorite. All 10 ten teams have at-least one game each throwing the tournament wide open. No team has maintained a winning streak for more than three games.

Kolkata had a chance to end the trend in their game against Kochi when they had the visiting team on the backfoot restricting them to a gettable 132. Batsmen, however, let them down with Gambhir led side falling short of six runs to put an end to their hat trick of victories.

The Eden gardens track had something for slow bowlers to offer but with Kolkata boasting of one of the strongest batting line-ups in the league, batsmen should have seen their team through. Poor batting show should not have pleased the team management one bit and will be keen to make the players to put the loss against Kochi behind.

Kolkata which has been on the role this season will be ready to make amends by getting back to the winning ways against Bangalore who they face in another home fixture.

Having said that, Kolkata will be buoyed by the fact that their bowlers have delivered in all the games played this season with spin trio of Iqbal Abdulla, Yusuf Pathan and Saqibul Hassan have been in superb wicket taking form. They have hardly giving anything to opponent batsmen to score easy runs and top order barring that last game have been consistently among the runs. What is refreshing to witness from the Kolkata point of view is the side is far settled this season which wasn’t seen in last three seasons.

For Bangalore, last two weeks have been tale of a team that has forgotten how to win games. Starting the season with a win, Bangalore have had a slide that saw them lose three games on the trot. Their problems were compounded by the washout of their home game against Rajasthan forcing them to share points. Bangalore have been handicapped by failure of their strong batting lineup and too much dependence on Zaheer Khan and skipper Daniel Vettori in the bowling department. When big guns fail in either department there is much left in the setup to step to the plate and team management would desperately want an all-round team performance to score a welcome win.

With home conditions to play with and side having more wins under their belt, Kolkata will be favorites for the game but if Bangalore play to their potential it could just be otherwise.

KOLKATA

Players who can make impact…

Gautam Gambhir…Kolkata skipper had a bad day with the bat against Kochi as he received an unplayable delivery to see his stumps rattled. Left hander will know his importance as a batsman to the team and would like to lead from the front against the likes of Zaheer and Vettori.

Iqbal Abdulla…Left arm spinner has been one of the stars in the tournament among the youngsters. His control over his variations and his readiness to bowl upfront has impressed one all. In the five games that Kolkata played, no batsmen has been able to take young spinner to cleaners and his reputation as one of the better left arm spinner going around in the country is just on a rise.

SQUAD

Brad Haddin (wk), Brett Lee, Eoin Morgan, Gautam Gambhir(c), Iqbal Abdulla, Jacques Kallis, Jaidev Unadkat, James Pattinson, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Laxmi Shukla, Manoj Tiwary, Manvinder Bisla, Pradeep Sangwan, Rajat Bhatia, Ryan ten Doeschate, Saqibul Hassan, Sarabjit Ladda, Shami Ahmed, Shreevats Goswami (wk),Yusuf Pathan.

BANGALORE

Players who can make impact…

AB de Villiers…One of the best batsmen going around, South African AB has turned out to be highest run scorer in the tournament so far. He is scored at a brisk rate and will be required to put up another dynamic performance with the bat to change Bangalore’s fortunes. He adds flexibility to the batting order by donning gloves behind the stumps.

Johan van der Wath…Big hitting all-rounder from South Africa is known for clearing the boundary easily but is yet to display that ability in India. He can change the course of any game with the bat and can use both new ball and old to a good effect.

SQUAD

AB de Villiers (wk), Abhimanyu Mithun, Abrar Kazi, Arun Karthik, Asad Pathan, BN Barath, Charl Langeveldt, Cheteshwar Pujara, Daniel Vettori (c), Dirk Nannes, Johan van der Wath, Jonathan Vandiar, Luke Pomersbach, Mayank Agarwal, Mohammad Kaif, Muralidharen Gautam, Nuwan Pradeep, Raju Bhatkal, Rilee Rossouw, Ryan Ninan, Saurabh Tiwary, Sreenath Aravind, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Virat Kohli, Zaheer Khan.