Chargers seek elusive win at home

11th May 2008

Match 32 of the DLF Indian Premier League (IPL) will feature hosts Deccan Chargers taking on the Kolkata Knight Riders at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium today.

The Deccan Chargers, despite boasting of the biggest hitters in the tournament, are yet to fire and have only managed to barely win two games from their eight outings. Adam Gilchrist, Herschelle Gibbs, Scott Styris and Shahid Afridi look the most devastating batting line-up in the tournament, but from among the four, only Gilchrist has managed a decent score so far; he notched up the fastest century in the IPL, and in the last match against the Rajasthan Royals got a quick-fire fifty to set a good foundation for his team.

Regular captain VVS Laxman might yet again be conspicuous by his absence, which means Adam Gilchrist will continue to be in the hot seat. The hosts haven't won a single match at home, and will want to turn things around this time.

The visitors broke their losing streak when they pulled off a narrow win against last-placed Royal Challengers. While the bowling has been the main cause of concern for the hosts, it is the batting that has let the visiting Knight Riders down most often. Apart from Brendon McCullum's blitzkrieg in the opening game, no other Kolkata batsman has made that kind of impact. In seven outings so far, the Knight Riders' batsmen have only managed four scores of fifty or above and will hope to get amongst the big scores today. The captain Sourav Ganguly himself has managed to get off the mark in all but one of his innings in the tournament, but has managed only one fifty so far. Given a start is very important to a team's success in Twenty20, John Buchanan will have had a special session with the captain to emphasize the need for him to get going.

The bowling presents a lesser worry for John Buchanan. Ashok Dinda has been pretty miserly with the ball, while Ishant Sharma has generally troubled the best batsmen on show. Umar Gul and Ajit Agarkar, combine well with Laxmi Ratan Shukla and Sourav Ganguly to complete the 20 overs.

Little Tatenda Taibu who was included in the last game, might continue to hold his place - he was brilliant on the field, and showed he had the requisite skills to improvise. Among the other changes one can expect are the inclusions of Debabrata Das in place of Aakash Chopra and Ajit Agarkar in place of Murali Kartik.

The last time they took on the Knight Riders, the match was played on a demon of a surface, and the hosts that time around, managed to scrape though to a win.

Will home advantage come to the Chargers' rescue this time around? Catch all the live action when the match starts at 1600 Hrs Local Time.

Watching Adam Gilchrist, Herschelle Gibbs and Shahid Afridi take on Ishant Sharma is going to be a spectacle.