Match Preview

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Kings XI face injury worries ahead of opening encounter

The Kings XI Punjab unit is under considerable pressure with a number of first choice players set to miss the game against Delhi Daredevils due to injury.

Led by new skipper Kumar Sangakkara, Kings XI Punjab will be looking to start their campaign with a win at home but it would be a tough ask with a lot of their key players struggling with injuries. Shaun Marsh, Brett Lee, Irfan Pathan and their start attraction, Yuvraj Singh are all doubtful to start. The team from Mohali were one of the strongest units in the first edition and cruised into the semi-finals but had a disappointing 2009 in South Africa. Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardena will be the key to their success in the present situation. Local players like Karan Goel Mohammad Kaif and Reetinder Sodhi will be expected to make valuable contributions with the bat. The spin pairing of Piyush Chawla and Ramesh Powar has developed into a successful combination and will look to keep up the good work.  Adrian Barath will join the squad after the ongoing series against Zimbabwe.

Delhi Daredevils will yet again start the tournaments as favourites. The team has done extremely well in both of the previous editions to make the semi-finals but have failed to get past that stage yet. They will be hoping to get third time lucky and try to make the final on this occasion. Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir will remain the key to their success. Tillakaratne Dilshan, AB de Villiers and David Warner will make it a very strong middle order. Moises Henriques is a dangerous all rounder. Dirk Nannes and Wayne Parnell will make an incisive opening pair with the ball. Delhi also have some strong Indian talent in Amit Mishra, Pradeep Sangwan, Aavishkar Salvi and Rajat Bhatia. All of them have made some crucial contributions in Daredevils’ success as a team.

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Indians look for winning start at home

Mumbai Indians will be hoping to start their campaign with a win against Rajasthan Royals at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai on Saturday.

The Indians have one of the strongest line-ups in the tournament with Sachin Tendulkar leading the pact but they have failed to make it past the league stage in the first two editions. Injuries have hampered their performance over previous seasons but another factor has been their inability to finish off close games. That could all change this season with a lot of the Mumbai players going into IPL 3 on a good run of form. Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya are likely to continue as the opening pair. JP Duminy will lead the middle order as Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard are slated to miss the opener due to an on-going series against Zimbabwe. Zaheer Khan and Lasith Malinga could make a lethal pace combination with Harbhajan Singh taking on spin duties.

Their opponents and winners of the first edition in India, Rajasthan Royals will be high on confidence with the tournament returning to India as they depend heavily on some of the local talent to contribute in a big way. Yusuf Pathan, Swapnil Asnodkar, Munaf Patel, Naman Ojha, Kamran Khan and Siddharth Trivedi have made significant contributions to their success as a team. Shane Warne will be hoping to lead them to more success with a lot of experienced internationals in their ranks. Graeme Smith, Shane Watson and Shaun Tait have been in good form leading up to the tournament and will be looking to impress. There will also be a lot of expectations from newcomers Damien Martyn and Michael Lumb. They will be without the services of Ravindra Jadeja, who was banned for the entire season after he apparently tried to negotiate his own price after his contract ended.

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