 The match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Auckland Aces will be played
at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad, September 19 at 20:00
IST or 14:30 GMT. It is the second match of the tournament on the opening day.
Kolkata Knight Riders got the fourth place in the IPL so they missed the direct
qualifying chance to participate in the tournament.
Click for Live Score Card of Kolkata Knight Riders Vs Auckland Aces
Now they will be playing in qualifying round to get a pass for the next round.
Kolkata Knight Riders is a very balanced team though they have been dealing with
some injury problems but they have some aces as well.
South African all rounder Jacques Kallis will have to shoulder the responsibility
of leading the team as Gautam Gambhir has been ruled out due to injury at least
for the early stage of the tournament. They also had to rule out English Batsman
Eoin Morgan. But Dutch batsman Ryan ten Doeschate, swashbuckling Yusuf Pathan
and best Bangladeshi batsman ever Shakib Al Hasan are capable of destroying
any bowling attack and who does not know the weakness of Auckland bowling attack.
KKR will be looking to exploit it as much as possible.
Their bowling is also balanced. Speed star Brett lee with his tricks
and Laksmipathy Balaji are very confident to make a successful pair to be in
the next level. Yusuf Pathan. Shakib Al Hasan and Iqbal Abdullah will be trying
to spin KKR's fate to win the match.
On the other hand Auckland Aces are a lot weaker team in paper but none can
guarantee the result of a Twenty20 match. Their skipper Garath Hopkins
admitted that they are very inexperienced team when it comes to playing in the
sub-continent.
But they have batsman like Martin Guptill who can single-handedly change
the result of a game. If he gets support form Robert Quiney and Jimmy Adams
KKR must suffer. Their bowling attack is a lot better than their batting. Daryl
Tuffy, Chris Martin, Kyle Mills and new speed star Michael Bates might cause
a lot of trouble to KKR.
Without any doubt Bollywood Superstar Shahrukh Khan's Kolkata Knight Riders
have the upper hand because they have depth in all departments. But it is qualifying
round match so Auckland Aces will not let KKR to get a victory against them
so easily. It will be a battle between KKR's batting versus Auckland's bowling.
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