It's a team on a roll. After cutting a rather sorry figure in the first three editions, Kolkata Knight Riders is enjoying its best phase ever in the fourth DLF-Indian Premier League. Never before has Knight Riders enjoyed such a wonderful run, a run that has now placed the side on top of the 10-team table with six wins and 12 points, and a superior net run-rate, after nine games.
Naturally, team owner Shah Rukh Khan is trying out new dance steps these days.
This may not be the best time to come up against Knight Riders. But a fixture has to be gone through and Kochi Tuskers Kerala will be playing the strong Kolkata outfit at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here on Thursday evening. It will be Tuskers' last game in Kochi; it plays its other two ‘home' matches in Indore.
Tuskers had pulled off a six-run win over Knight Riders the last time the two met, in Kolkata a fortnight ago, and this time the latter looks well set to avenge that loss.
Knight Riders' big-money buys, captain Gautam Gambir and the Jacques Kallis, are fifth and sixth in the top run-getters' list this season and, with Manoj Tiwary also coming good and now occupying the eighth rung, Riders' batting looks strong. The team's big hitter Yusuf Pathan is also finding his touch; he played a match-winning knock against Deccan Chargers in Hyderbad on Tuesday night.
Riders has had many of its young stars rising to the occasion smartly many a time when the big guns failed to click. Manoj Tiwary and the 21-year-old Iqbal Abdulla are classic cases. Left-arm spinner Abdulla, who came into the IPL as a virtual unknown, is now second in this season's wicket-takers' list with 12 scalps, behind Mumbai Indians' Lasith Malinga.
The presence of the evergreen Australian Brett Lee, L. Balaji and off-spinner Yusuf Pathan, who has impressed with the ball when he failed with the bat on many occasions, brings a lot of variety to its bowling and makes Riders a balanced side.
And Kallis's brilliant fielding, despite his 35-year-old frame, also means that Kolkata saves some 15 to 20 runs in every game.
But Twenty20 is a strange game, a format which proves that there are many more Davids in cricket's pocket version than the longer game. Tuskers proved this when it laid low the strong Mumbai Indians a few days ago, and defending champion Chennai Super Kings too.
Even Kolkata would have been in deep trouble had Deccan Chargers taken the early chances offered by Yusuf Pathan on Tuesday night.
That should offer hope for Tuskers, which bounced back nicely with an away win over Daredevils a couple of days ago after suffering a three-match losing streak.
Kochi found a new hero in seamer Prasanth Parameswaran, who gave the team the crucial wicket of Virender Sehwag the other day, and if the side is able to handle the death overs smartly, as it did in Delhi, especially through R.P. Singh in the final over, there could be a very interesting game ahead.
The Tuskers, in the sixth spot in the points table with eight points from nine games, has men like Brendon McCullum, captain Mahela Jayawardene, Parthiv Patel, Ravindra Jadeja and Brad Hodge. And if the top order comes good in a big way, anything is possible.
The wicket for the last two games here came in for a lot of flak but there seems to be a positive change now. It could be a nice batting track.
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