The hollowed grounds of Eden gardens will bid farewell to the Knightriders
when they come up against rampaging Kings XI Punjab this coming Sunday. Both
these sides have nothing much to play for and will be hoping that the decreased
pressure can enable them to express themselves more freely this Sunday in Kolkata.
Click for Live Score Card of Kolkata Knightriders vs Kings XI Punjab
The Kolkata Knightriders have seen their qualification prospects crumble
down in a sad fashion after losing three matches in a trot midway through the
IPL series. A bad saw them lose at Mumbai before collapsing at home to Chennai
Superkings and the Rajasthan Royals that dented their semi final prospectus.
A washout against Delhi condemned them to a non semi-final finish and they have
only pride at stake when they clash up against Kings XI Punjab at home.
The Knightriders biggest undoing so far has been their poor batting form which
has let them down bigtime. The absence of Ricky Pointing and Chris Gayle has
meant that there is an absolute lack of big hitters in the line up . Although
the likes of Salman Butt, Sourav Ganguly and David Hussey has fired sparingly,
the collective batting performance leaves a lot to be desired. Kolkata have
lost their last two home clashes at the Eden Gardens against the Chennai Superkings
and Rajasthan Royals with the last loss coming due to some pretty ordinary batting
performance. Eden Gardens has always shown a penchant for high crowd support
and the Kolkata Knightriders will be hoping to entertain their ever-faithful
support with a strong performance against the Kings XI outfit this time around.
On the other hand Kings XI Punjab have been in smashing form and have won their
last nine out of ten matches. Despite the Rajasthan Royals dominance
in the IPL, Kings XI look to have a brilliantly balanced batting line up and
the plethora of left-handers make them a difficult side to contain. The likes
of Yuvraj Singh, Shawn Marsh and Kumara Sangakkara have been in outlandish form
and much of their victories can be attributed to their excellence. The bowling
has been consistent too with Sreesanth topping the wicket taking charts and
the combination of Irfan Pathan and Piyush Chawla has ensured that they
will not be short of any bowling options at crunch situations. Kings XI Punjab
come into this clash on the back of two extremely tense matches and winning
those two will give them immense confidence and resolve. With a place in the
semifinals already assured, Kings XI Punjab will be setting their eyes on pipping
the Rajasthan Royals for the first spot when they come up against the Kolkata
Knightriders this coming Sunday 25th May 2008 at the Eden Gardens.
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