Upbeat Punjab's take on enterprising Kolkata (Preview)

Punjab is another team that would not be very pleased by the scheduling of their matches. They are playing after a gap of about a week and whatever momentum they had after the hat trick of wins would have been lost and they are to begin afresh. Kolkata on the contrary would be very confident after a sweet victory against Delhi.

Gautam Gambhir led Kolkata by virtue of that win climbed to number two on the points table and the fact that this is being played at Eden Gardens makes their job a little bit easier. Kolkata strong batting line up was buoyed by the match-winning knock of local lad Manoj Tiwary in their last match. Then there are accomplished batsmen also in the Kolkata team- crafty Eoin Morgan, solid Jacques Kallis, explosive Yusuf Pathan and the captain Gautam Gambhir who got them over the line many a time.

Kolkata’s bowling looks in good shape with the likes of Brett Lee, Balaji and young spinner Iqbal Abdulla in their ranks. Yousuf Pathan has been among the wickets as well with 8 scalps just 1 fewer than Shane Warne’s tally. That sort of combination makes it very hard for other teams to post big totals against them.

However, Punjab have the batting to accomplish this hard task. The batting troika of Paul Valthaty, Adam Gilchrisht and Shaun Marsh has taken the opposition bowlers to task on a regular basis. If anyone of them gets going, Gambhir and co may have some thinking to do.

Unlike batting their bowling is bit of a concern- they conceded 231 runs against Delhi in the last match. Two local recruits Piyush Chawla and Praveen Kumar would be the main men in that attack. Piyush’s deceptive googly on the spinning Eden Gardens would be more than a handful.

This should be an absorbing contest between two strong teams with batting most likely to dominate the proceedings. Home advantage may give Kolkata a little edge over Punjab who would be rusty not having played in a while.

KOLKATA

Players who can make impact…

Jacques Kallis ….He anchors the innings when early wickets fall and can accelerate if required. He contributes in every department of the game and has the ability to take wickets at critical times.

Iqbal Abdulla…With an economy rate of about 6 runs per hour in this year’s IPL he has been a real success story. With the Eden pitch likely to take turn the young bowler’s good run may continue.

SQUAD

Brad Haddin (wk), Brett Lee, Eoin Morgan, Gautam Gambhir(c), Iqbal Abdulla, Jacques Kallis, Jaidev Unadkat, James Pattinson, Laxmipathy 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.

PUNJAB

Players who can make impact…

Adam Gilchrist….He is always a treat to watch. Not even three years of retirement have affected his timing and hand-eye coordination. He continues to plunder bowlers to all parts of the ground and the longer he stays at the wicket, the lesser are the chances of the opposition in the match. Not to forget his flawless keeping that has always made him one of the very best.

Paul Valthaty…He seems to have a Midas touch. Whatever he does these days is coming off-runs with the bat and wickets with the ball. Would the most famous ground in India, Eden Gardens be witness to a Paul Valthaty special?

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.