Deccan Chargers vs Kolkata Knight Riders: IPL Match Preview

>> Indian Premier League: IPL 2010

• IPL 2010 Opener: Deccan Chargers vs Kolkata Knight Riders
  • Match Day and Date: Friday, 12th of March 2010
  • Venue: Dr. D.Y. Patil Stadium, Nerul, Navi Mumbai
  • Watch the Live Telecast of the match on Set Max from 8:00 pm India Time (2:30 pm GMT/UTC)

IPL 2009 Champions Deccan Chargers are slated to take on last year’s bottom ranker and the IPL’s most talked about team, the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the opening match of IPL 2010 later this evening, after the glitzy opening ceremony.

Unlike on the previous occasions, the Knight Riders have had a much quiter prelude to this IPL: team owner and Bollywood Star Shahrukh Khan seems to have deliberately toned down things after the team faced much flak for its performances on the cricket field. Other factors have helped: John Buchanan has been replaced by Dav Whatmore as the coach; unlike his predecessor, Whatmore seems to be quite happy working with his boys on cricket and is not too keen on giving out sound-bytes to the media.

The Kolkata team looks very, very keen to shed its image of the past: towards this end, they have also given up on their much glitzier ‘black and gold’ colours – this year, the men from Kolkata will take on the field in their new ‘purple’ jerseys.

On the other hand, the team from Hyderabad has always been one of the quietest one in the IPL. When they changed their captain early on in IPL 2008, it was done without raising much murmur and media speculations unlike what happened when Vijay Mallya and the rest of the Royal Challengers Bangalore team got into the limelight for the wrong reasons when Dravid was removed from the captain’s post.

Deccan Chargers began their IPL campaign horribly, finishing at the bottom of the table in the IPL 2008. But what a turnaround it was for the men in the next tournament in South Africa!

Probably SRK has taken a cue from the Chargers this time round, and decided to quiten up the off-field affairs and focus on cricket. That’s been a sensible call, and things can only improve from last time.

You may find it odd but I would think the Kolkata Knight Riders would be the definite favourites entering this match, and I have good reasons for that:

• The DC captain Adam Gilchrist has been completely out of live cricket action for a long time now. It takes a while for the best of cricketers to get back into groove. With 14 matches to play, he has time to do that, but today is another affair.
• Herschelle Gibbs, another important cog in the Hyderabad wheel has been completely out of sorts in the recent past. Plus his past performances in the IPL are not much to talk about anyways.
• Last year’s highest wicket taker, R.P. Singh too has not seen much cricket action of late. Bowlers take longer than batsmen to warm-up.
• Kolkata Knight Riders have amidst their ranks a man called David Hussey. He has over 2000 T20 runs to his credit at an astounding average of 139.
• Hodge is the world’s leading run scorer in T20 cricket.
• John Buchanan is not in India.

I have a feeling that the SRK-Dada combine will hit a ‘purple’ patch this year. What do you think?