Do-or-die time for Kochi and Punjab (Preview)

Gradually, wheat is separating from chaff in IPL-4, the top four sides are running away from the rest of the pack. Call it statistical hope or the number game, Hyderabad is the only team that has lost all hopes of making it to the play-offs, however the slim mathematical chances aside, Kochi and Punjab can pull it off if they manage to win all their remaining matches.

The winner of tomorrow’s match to be played at Indore will have one more chance and their dream of glory will stay alive and it would be curtains as far as the title race is concerned for the other team. On form, both Kochi and Punjab have been inconsistently inconsistent, more matches have been lost than won. However, the confidence levels wouldn’t be same, Punjab come in this match on the back of an upset win over mighty Mumbai, while as Kochi were thrashed by Chris Gayle and co. in their last match.

Since, it is a must win situation for the teams, winning will be the only aim. The home team have been battling to find a combination that would perform in all the departments, one day their batting shines and the very next match, it falls like nine pins. The bowling story has been no different, they restricted formidable Kolkata to manageable proportions and then the Gayle storm just blew them away, poor Parameswaran wouldn’t be feeling too well after that 37 runs over. However, that has to change if they want to progress to coveted stage of the tournament.

Punjab after a horrible run of five consecutive loses turned the tables on Mumbai and gave them a pasting. The batting didn’t set the ground on fire but the bowlers performed superbly to roll over the league leaders in just thirteen overs. Spinner Bhargav Bhatt starred in that victory and a repeat of that performance would make it easier for his team. Shaun Marsh has been the backbone of the Punjab batting for a long time now. Skipper Adam Gilchrist’s form has been a bit of concern; he is yet to win a match with the bat. Another area that needs improvement is fielding, they had enough runs in the bag to get away with four dropped chances against Mumbai, another day that might have cost them the match.

Although, Punjab have their noses slightly in front, Kochi have a reputation of pulling the rabbit out of the hat and have been the surprise element so far.

KOCHI

Players who can make impact…

Mahela Jayawardene…The Sri-Lankan has been a big-match player for so many years now. His experience of dealing with the pressure in a do-or-die situation would come handy for Kochi.

Parthiv Patel….He may be a forgotten name in the national cricketing circles but he still is an effective cricketer who always gives more than a 100 percent. His adds firepower to the wobbly Kochi batting and his keeping has been top drawer during the whole tournament.

SQUAD

B McCullum, Balachandra Akhil, Brad Hodge, Chandan Madan, Deepak Chougule, Gnaneswara Rao, John Hastings, Kedar Jadhav, M Jayawardene (c), Michael Klinger, Muttiah Muralitharan, Owais Shah, P Parameswaran, Parthiv Patel (wk), Raiphi Gomez, Ramesh Powar, Ravindra Jadeja, RP Singh, S Sreesanth, Steve O'Keefe, Steven Smith, Sushant Marathe, Tanmay Srivastava, Thissara Perera, Vinay Kumar, VVS Laxman, Yashpal Singh.

PUNJAB

Players who can make impact…

Shaun Marsh…He is the Mr. Consistent of IPL-4. His flawless technique makes him fit for any role, whether that of a sheet anchor or an attacking option towards the end of innings. He also is the go-to man for the Punjab line up when they have lost too many wickets early on.

Praveen Kumar….He is an out and out swing bowler, who can deceive the batsmen with clever changes of pace, so Kochi would have to handle him with some care.

SQUAD

Abhishek Nayar, Adam Gilchrist (c)(wk), Amit Yadav, Bhargav Bhatt, Bipul Sharma, David Hussey, David Miller, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Love Ablish, Mandeep Singh, Nathan Rimmington, Nitin Saini, Paras Dogra, Paul Valthaty, Piyush Chawla, Praveen Kumar, Ryan Harris, Shalabh Srivastava, Shaun Marsh, Siddharth Chitnis, Sunny Singh, Vikramjeet Malik, Ryan McLaren.