 Chennai Super King will play the Kolkata Knight Riders in the first game
of the Indian Premier League this year. This is the fourth edition of the
IPL and will see the two sides fight it out for the first win to set the tone
for the rest of the tournament.
If one were to go by the past record, the Super Kings will be favourites going
into the game. The reason is simple. For one, the Super Kings have entered the
semi finals of the all the three editions so far. they were the losing finalists
in the first edition of the tournament to the Rajasthan Royals, they lost in
the semi-finals of the second edition of the tournament, while going on to win
the third one by beating Mumbai in 2010.
Click for Live Score Card of Chennai Super Kings Vs Kolkata Knight Riders
As compared to that, the Kolkata Knight Riders have struggled and that is an
understatement itself. They have lost out in the first round of the tournament
on all three occasions of the IPL so far, not having reached the semi-finals
and that has left them with a totally new side. What would have even made it
more difficult for the side is that their last edition was probably their worst,
as they made the desired changes to the line-up and yet, were not able to get
moving.
This time around, the two sides are totally different from each other in strategy
as one would have expected. On one hand, there is Kolkata, which has changed
things around totally - there is a new captain and a totally new team which
consists of some of the best players from around the world. Gautam Gambhir will
lead the side whereas the gauntlet of batting will lie on the likes of Yusuf
Pathan and some of the foreign players like Jacques Kallis. Kallis was
the second best batsman in the previous edition of the tournament.
The bowling will be taken care by all-rounders like Ryan ten Doeschate and
Shakib al Hasan, and given the slowish pitch, it should be the latter
who will play in the game.
On the other hand, the Chennai Super Kings have gone in with a squad
that is similar to the one that they had last year. Dhoni continues to lead,
while Murali Vijay will open even as Suresh Raina will be the middle-order batsman.
Dwayne Bravo should play as their all-rounder whereas the bowling will be manned
by Doug Bollinger.
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