Kolkata Knight Riders won the toss and elected to bowl against Delhi Daredevils in the 32nd match of the 10th Indian Premier League (IPL) at Eden Gardens on Friday afternoon. KKR lead the 11-7 in the head-to-head.
Nathan Coulter-Nile replaced Darren Bravo and Sheldon Jackson will get a game instead of Piyush Chawla for the Kolkata Knight Riders. It will have to be seen whether Robin Uthappa gets to be wicket-keeper with Jackson in the 11. Delhi Daredevils made one change, getting middle-order batsman Ankit Bawne in for wicket-keeper batsman Aditya Tare.
Given that the 10-year cycle ends with this edition, this could be the last time Gautam Gambhir is leading the Knights out against a team from his home city; Kolkata, he has always said, has been like a home away from home over the past seven editions of the IPL. Unless, of course, both make the playoffs and meet again as they did in 2012.
Gautam Gambhir has spoken about how it would be nice to return to the Delhi team given his roots. But all that would be in the distant future.
In the immediate future, Gambhir is 48 runs away from becoming the fourth Indian and 13th batsman overall to score 6000 T20 runs.
Should he get that and add some more to his personal score at Eden on Friday, he could also have the maximum number of half-centuries in the IPL. Going into this match, he is tied on 34 at the top spot with David Warner.
Zaheer Khan, Gambhir’s counterpart on Friday, though would hope to have his rival captain’s number much before all that happens. On 99 IPL wickets going into this match, that would make the landmark even more memorable.
Delhi Daredevils are here on the back of three straight losses, beginning with a penultimate ball defeat to KKR at home. Their batting has not pulled its weight though they have managed to get past 200 once, something KKR haven’t this term yet.
And that could be the nub of the problem for a team that like KKR have an abundance of resources in the pace bowling department.
Zaheer Khan though has said he is confident of the team getting its act together when it matters most. He wouldn’t mind if it began this afternoon.