Chennai Super Kings vs Kolkata Knight Riders
Date: Friday, 08th April 2011; Time: 20:00 IST
Venue: Chennai
Its time for IPL action, and we start off with Chennai Super Kings vs Kolkata Knight Riders at Chennai. The IPL champions Super kings face one of the low key performers of IPL 2010, the Kolkata Knight Riders.
MS Dhoni leads his Champion team out six days after he lead India to World Cup finals victory over Sri Lanka. Dhoni has already lifted four big trophies being a Captain, 1st being the International T20 Champions followed by IPL 2010 Champions, then the Champions League T20 trophy and the last but not the least World Cup 2011 Trophy. With such a remarkable record so early in his career, all eyes will be on him as he prepares for yet another feather in his cap.
Its a battle between Dhoni's yellow brigade and Gautam Ghambir's new look team. Gautam Ghambir who earlier played for Delhi Daredevils is now the captain of Kolkata Knight Riders and high expectations rests on his shoulder.
Chennai Super Kings
Of all the teams in the IPL 2011 version, its Dhoni's boys who form the same bunch of players as they had in 2010 with few additions and subtractions. Many other franchises have seen total revamp in their sides mostly due to addition of two new franchises Kochi Tuskers and Pune Warriors.
Chennai Super Kings would mostly have the squad same as that of 2010, but with Michael Hussey not featuring due to International commitment (Australia's tour of Bangladesh) it gives a chance for some local players like Anirudh Srikanth who can open the innings with Murali Vijay who had a fantastic IPL 2010 season with Chennai Super Kings being in the top 5 run getter list of IPL 2010.
Chennai Super Kings have a good batting line up suited for the T20 version with Murali Vijay as the calm stroking player followed by Badrinath who also has succeeded well on the 2010 version of IPL. Then they have Suresh Raina and Dhoni who can change the game around and take Chennai Super Kings to a massive score.
With the absence of Hussey, a slot for another international player beckons and Chennai have some new additions in all rounder slot who can fill his shoes. Albie Morkel will definitely play in the side as the front line bowler and he would soon be joined by Scott Styris and Faf Du Plessis who will fill up the all rounder slots.
Chennai Super Kings have strengthened their bowling line up with the introduction of fast pace bowlers in the form of New Zealand's Tim Southee and Sri Lanka's Nuwan Kulasekara. Tim Southee had an excellent World Cup as he picked up 18 wickets third best in the World Cup and helped New Zealand reach the semi finals of the World Cup 2011.
Kolkata Knight Riders
Kolkata Knight Riders owned by Superstar Shahrukh Khan is a team with huge fan base and players who have been paid a hell lot of money, but this team has always let its fan down be it the inaugural IPL season or the IPL 2010. This team has also seen internal clashes with the famous Ganguly-Buchanan saga which saw Ganguly being stripped of his captaincy but things never changed and Knight Riders always remained one of the bottom teams.
Their 2011 team sees a lot of new faces, the most important being that of Gautam Gambhir who leads the Kolkata Knight Riders team for the first time and also the absence of local guy Saurav Ganguly who failed to make the cut for Knight Riders. Many other changes can be seen in the KKR team with the inclusion of hard hitter Yusuf Pathan who along with Gautam gambhir has cost Kolkata Knight Riders a hell lot of money.
Kolkata Knight Riders also have strengthened their batting line up by getting Kallis from Royal Challengers Bangalore. They have also bought Brad Haddin, Brett Lee and Shakib Al Hasan who will miss out on the first two games due to Australia's tour of Bangladesh. This will give chance to other new International signings like Netherlands batting sensation Ryan Ten Doeschate and England middle order batsman Eoin Morgan.
Haddin's absence will see Sreevats Goswami take the wicket-keeping gloves for KKR and he might as well open the batting with Gautam Ghambir up front. The batting line up for Kolkata Knight Riders looks decent enough but its their bowling line up which seems a liitle on the weaker side. Their bowling attack sees Brett Lee, Balaji and Pradeep Sangwan as the pace attack but lack a quality spinner.
Probable starting X1's -
Chennai Super Kings: Vijay, Srikanth, Badrinath, Raina, Dhoni (c), Morkel, Du Plessis, Ashwin, Jakati, Southee, Bollinger.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Gambhir (c), Goswami, Kallis, Tiwary, Morgan, Pathan, Ten Doeschate, Shukla, Sangwan, Balaji, Abdullah
Previous Encounters
IPL 3:
Mar 16 2010 - Chennai won by 55 runs
Apr 13 2010 - Chennai won by 9 wickets
IPL 2:
Apr 25 2009 - No Result
May 18 2009 - Kolkata won by 7 wickets
IPL 1:
Apr 26 2008 - Chennai won by nine wickets
May 18 2008 - Chennai won by 3 runs
So so far as things stand its Chennai Super Kings 4 and Kolkata Knight Riders 1. So will it turn to a 5-1 scoreline or a 4-2 scoreline is something we will have to watch out for.
Will Gautam Gambhir's new look KKR side upset MSD's stable Chennai's Super Kings side is something you will have to watch out for.
Watch the Chennai Super Kings vs Kolkata Knight Riders match Live at 20:00 IST right here, LIVE Free Streaming for all you IPL fans.
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