The sixth match of the tournament will see the Kolkata Knight Riders play the Kings XI Punjab at Kingsmead in Durban. This will be the first match of the day.

Both Kolkata and the Kings lost their first match and hence this match assumes a lot of importance for the two teams. Kolkata’s balanced in the batting and bowling line-up means that they go into the match as favourites (10/11 at Sporting Bet to win match), marginally better than KXP (11/10 Sky Bet to win the match)

The advantage Kolkata have on paper is that both, their batting and bowling looks stronger than their opponents’ on paper. However, this is probably offset by Kings’ coach, Tom Moody, who likes to ingrain the value of playing as a team than relying on one or two of them. Karan Goel (11/2 at William Hill for highest score by KXP) was the surprise package of the previous match for KXP, but this time it could very well be the turn of Yuvraj Singh (9/2 Coral) to be Punjab’s highest scorer. I say this for a couple of reasons; one is that the pitch at Kingsmead in Durban is usually much flatter and allows for playing through the line of the ball. Secondly, Yuvraj should remember that one his best ever T20I inning had come in this ground; it had Yuvi smashing Stuart Broad for six sixes in an over of the ICC World T20I.

Kolkata had batting woes of their own as the trio of Chris Gayle (7/2 at Ladbrokes for highest score for Kolkata), Brendon McCullum (7/2 at Ladbrokes for highest score for Kolkata) and Sourav Ganguly (9/2 at Boyle Sports for highest score for Kolkata) all failed with the bat. It is not often that all batsmen of such capability fail on two successive occasions and I won’t bet on that happening again. In fact, one of the three could just be that batsman who steals the thunder with the willow and guides the way for Knight Riders.

The Knight Riders would have also realised from their mistake of not playing Ajantha Mendis (3/1 at Stan James for being the most economic bowler) in their previous match and the sense that I get is that he could just be a difficult bowler to pick for the batsmen. The catch-22 that the batsmen will be in while facing up to him is whether to go after him and risk losing his wicket or play out the 24 balls from the young maestro. On the other hand, Ishant Sharma’s(7/2 Stan James for most economic) pace and his recent lack of form could make it easier for the batsmen to take the bowler for runs and it may not necessarily be a very smart move to back him.

Unfortunately, it is a trifle difficult to gauge the bowlers from both teams as the Delhi batsmen and rains had barely allowed 29 deliveries from KXP, where as the Kolkata Knight Riders had set a target of 102 for their opponents; something that hadn’t given the true potency of their bowling.

Tips:
Team: Kolkata Knight Riders (10/11 at Sporting Bet)
Highest Score: Chris Gayle (7/2 at Ladbrokes)
Economical Bowler: Ajantha Mendis (3/1 at Stan James)