In the 65th game of the Indian Premier League, the Pune Warriors India will take on the Kolkata Knight Riders at the Dr. DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.
While the Warriors have already crashed out of the tournament, the Knight Riders have a good chance of going through to the playoffs...
Pune v Kolkata odds:
...however, it was much better for the Knight Riders (4/7 at
William Hill) a week back. They were on their path to easily making it through to the playoffs with 14 points off their 11 games and no team in close proximity. Then, they lost to the Royal Challengers Bangalore and in the meantime, the Kings XI Punjab won four games in a row to come at par.
Now, Kolkata have 14 points from 12 games whereas Punjab have 14 from 13. A win for the Knight Riders, thus, becomes imperative as they look to eke out their qualification for the playoffs.
Pune (6/4 at
BetFred) will look to finish on a high, having won only four games in the tournament so far. They are far better, on paper, than their standing in the points table suggests and will look to finish with a respectable couple of wins.
Ground and Pitch:
The match will be played at the DY Patil Stadium, one of the best in the tournament as it allows the ball to come on to the bat. Stroke-makers should batting on this pitch, as should the bowlers, who can get bounce out of the pitch.
Player News:
Despite the academic nature of this contest, there is the one huge sub-plot within the main storyline that everyone would be waiting for. Sourav Ganguly will be up against his former IPL franchise after they had dumped him at the end of the previous season. Ganguly will be desperate for both, a win that pushes the Knight Riders into a difficult situation and a big enough score to prove a point to his former team-owners.
That said, the old habits were back for the Warriors. They collapsed yet again in the first half of the innings, after a decent opening stand between Jesse Ryder and Manish Pandey. The top-order was in an unusual hurry and gave up on their wickets meekly and the side was bowled out for next to nothing. Kolkata will look to exploit that chink in the Pune top-order.
Kolkata have had a nice break of four days that would have allowed them to reassess the situation. They have done a decent job overall, but the batsmen have failed to accelerate in the middle of the innings. Manoj Tiwary has had a lot of burden on his shoulders, but the absence of any fruitful contribution from Yusuf Pathan has hurt the side.
Even Gautam Gambhir has failed to convert his starts, having got to only one half-century. With Pathan in the kind of form he is in, one of Gambhir, Jacques Kallis or Eoin Morgan needs to do something of note to set the side up.
Prediction:
Kolkata will be favourites to beat Pune, weakened by a fragile top-order.