Kolkata: It's captain courageous versus captain cool as in-form Kolkata Knight Riders take on Chennai Super Kings at the Eden Gardens on Tuesday evening. The change of the jersey colour has come with the change of fortunes for the Knight Riders as they sit atop the points table with two wins from two games. Chennai, on the other hand, will be smarting from a defeat in their opening game against the Chargers.
The Knight Riders seemed to have shaped up well in the first two games. While their bowling was good from the word go, their batting at the top order was a bit wobbly in the first match. By the second game, they had sorted that out as well and openers Manoj Tiwary and Brad Hodge showed their metal against the Bangalore outfit.
Kolkata will be hoping that they carry on their form. Even though Sourav Ganguly looked a bit scratchy during his short innings on Sunday, MSD will be aware that he Prince of Kolkata hardly takes time to shift gears. Angelo Mathews and Owais Shah have been in fine form and young Cheteshwar Pujara has just the right technique to make a mark on the Chennai bowlers.
The hosts' bowling is also looking good except the unavailability of the fifth bowler, a role that was played by Ganguly, Hodge and Rohan Gavaskar in the previous game. Ishant Sharma and Charl Langeveldt are in the zone and Mathews has been the great find for Kolkata so far. But Kolkata's only worry going into Tuesday's game will be the fifth bowling option. Four overs of loose bowling could cost them the game especially as Chennai has a strong batting lineup.
Chennai, smarting from an unexpected defeat in their opener, have less than 48 hours to regroup. Except skipper Dhoni and Albie Morkel, none of the other batsmen really troubled the Chargers. Kolkata's think-tank would have closely followed the game and a lot depends on the batting form displayed by Matthew Hayden and Suresh Raina.
The bowling too remains a big worry for Chennai. Morkel was carted all over and was unable to control the new ball. Young pacer Sudeep Tyagi turned out to be the most expensive of the lot and the hammering he got would not have done well for his confidence. Only Muttiah Muralitharan and Ravichandran Ashwin showed a bit of class, but overall Chennai's bowling was pretty pedestrian.
Kolkata fans will be hoping for a hat-trick of wins for the Knight Riders, while Chennai knows that only a top overall performance will be able to stop the Ganguly juggernaut. It's going to be a great battle between two men - one who started India's ascent to the peak, and the other who planted the flag on the top.
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