Kolkata Knight Riders need another McCullum act to overpower Deccan Chargers

The VVS Lakshman-led Hyderabad team has the most solid batting line-up in DLP IPL Twenty20

After an out-of-the box assault by Brendon McCullum against Bangalore Royal Challengers in the IPL opening clash, Kolkata Knight Riders now take on the most solid team on paper in the DLF IPL Twenty20 tournament – Deccan Chargers led by VVS Laxman.
A team which has Andrew Symmonds, Adam Gilchrist, Shahid Afridi, VVS Laxman, Chaminda Vaas and Scott Styris, Deccan Chargers are the most formidable side in this competition, at least in paper.
So Sourav Ganguly and his Kolkata Knight Riders have a task cut out.
Take McCullum’s heroics out of the last match and you would find hardly any difference between the two teams. Sourav wasn’t at his best and Ponting was too far way from convincing. Of course the bowling department did well, thanks largely to the insurmountable total put out by McCullum.
In the event of McCullum getting out early, Kolkata Knight Riders will have to have a Plan B. Law of averages doesn’t favor McCullum performing yet another heroic display, but any thing can happen in Twenty20.
Chris Gayle, who is the top scorer in Twenty20 (internationally recognised matches; IPL is not recognized officially by ICC as an international tournament), would not play due to an injury.
So the Kolkata Knight Riders are heavily dependent on Sourav Ganguly himself and Ricky Ponting.
A packed house is expected at Eden Gardens and that puts pressure on the home team itself, a lot more than Deccan Chargers. That is the burden of expectations that Sourav Ganguly should deal with. The huge crowd will also likely to be antagonistic towards Aussies like Andrew Symonds and to a lesser extent Adam Gilchrist, but these are top performers who have dealt with crowds through out the world. On the captaincy front, Sourav Ganguly has a huge benefit of a superb start as well as the solid backing of strategist and coach John Buchanan and another master skipper in Ricky Ponting. VVS Laxman on the other hand does not really fit the bill having lead Rest of India and Hyderabad teams only, without much to boast about.
Going by the past matches the team winning the toss prefers to bat first and put a solid score on board to defend.
In only one match,  Delhi Daredevils vs Rajasthan Royals, have the chasing team won so far. So toss would be vital.
The interesting contest of the match would be between new Indian pace sensation Ishant Sharma and Australian Andrew Symonds. Remember they are just out of a keen tussle Down Under.
Hyderabad also would miss a big hitter in Heschelle Gibbs, who is tied with a domestic tournament back home.
The Eden track is set to favour batsmen and since the line-up favours Deccan Chargers Kolkata Knight Riders would have to have another McCullum-like performance from some one.
Hyderabad Deccan Chargers have the edge in this contest, bookies say.

Teams:
Deccan Chargers
VVS Laxman, Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds, Nuwan Zoysa, Rohit Sharma, Scott Syris,  Chamara Silva, Chaminda Vaas, R P Singh, Haldhar Das, Pragyan Ojha, P Vijay Kumar, Sarvesh Kumar, Arjun Yadav, D Kalyan Krishna, Y Venugopal Rao.

Kolkata Knight Riders
Brendon McCullum, Sourav Ganguly, David Hussey, Ricky Ponting, Mohammad Hafeez, L R Shukla, Ishant Sharma, Ajit Agarkar, Murali Kartik, Siddharth Kaul, Iqbal Abdulah, Wriddhiman Saha, Rohan Banerjee, Aakash Chopra, Debabrata Das, Sourashish Lahiri, Cheteshwar Pujara, Prasanta Saha, Tatenda Taibu, Yashpal Singh. 

• Deccan  Chargers           http://in.groups.yahoo.com/group/deccan_chargers
• Kolkata Knight Riders   http://in.groups.yahoo.com/group/Kolkata_Knight_Riders
• Kings XI Punjab              http://in.groups.yahoo.com/group/KingsXI_Punjab
• Rajastan Royals             http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Rajasthan_Royals