 The
Pune Warriors India will take on the Kolkata Knight Riders in the
65th game of the Indian Premier League. The Warriors will look to ensure
that they can fight hard despite being out of the tournament while Kolkata will
want to get the better of their opponents simply because their place in the final
four is in jeopardy.
The points table is such that if Kolkata loses this game, they will be left with
a lot to do in their last game. The Knight Riders currently have 14 points with
two games remaining. On the other hand, their nearest rivals Punjab also have
14 points from 13 games. This means that Punjab have one game to play.
Click for Live Score Card of Pune Warriors Vs Kolkata Knight Riders
After this one, Kolkata play Bangalore in their last game which will be a tough
cookie. On the other hand, Punjab are playing Deccan in their must-win encounter
which means that the side will still have a better chance of winning, putting
the onus on Kolkata to win this game.
The net run rate could also be an issue. For now, the Knight Riders are only slightly
ahead of Punjab, they have 0.403 as their net run rate while the Punjab side have
0.27. A defeat by 10-20 runs could even things up and the two teams will then
approach their respective last game with same points and similar net run rates.
There's another angle to this game between Pune and Kolkata. Sourav Ganguly
is an ex Kolkata captain and was unceremoniously dropped from the side. He is
now playing for the Pune Warriors, which means that he will be charged up to
perform against his former team, and to get a big one will be a huge achievement.
However, the most important thing, even from Ganguly's point of view would be
for the Kolkata Knight Riders to lose and not qualify for the playoffs - something
that he would prefer over any number of runs that he scores in the game.
The Knight Riders will look to Eoin Morgan to give them a good start,
something that hasn't happened very regularly in the tournament for them. On
the other hand, Pune will hope that they do not collapse again even as Jesse
Ryder keeps getting out to silly strokes all the time.
Yuvraj Singh and Gautam Gambhir will both look to get some runs for their side.
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