The Pune Warriors India (PWI) will take on Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) for the first time this season. The match will be played at Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium, Pune on Thursday, and it is the 56th game of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2013.
Overview:
PWI are at the bottom of the table with just four points. They have won only two of the 12 games played so far. They lost to Rajasthan Royals by five wickets in their previous match. There is no chance of making it to the Play-Offs but they can disappoint other teams in their remaining matches.
KKR are placed in the seventh position with eight points after winning four of the 12 matches played so far. They lost to Mumbai Indians by 65 runs in the previous match just on the back of defeating RR by eight wickets. They will be under pressure to perform as they need to win all the remaining matches to make it to the Play-Offs.
Previous Meetings:
KKR have a 100 percent record against PWI, winning all the three matches they have played in IPL.
Team News:
Pune Warriors India: Openers Robin Uthappa and Aaron Finch are in great form, ensuring a good start for the team. They scored 54 and 45 respectively in the previous match, helping the team to put up a total of 178 runs on the board. Yuvraj Singh, Mitchell Marsh and Angelo Mathews also contributed in the previous match. The top-order is expected to fire from the word go, now that they are out of the competition.
Wayne Parnell took three wickets in the previous match while Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Angelo Mathews took a wicket apiece. They also have Ashok Dinda, Mitchell Marsh, Abhishek Nayar, Rahul Sharma and Ajantha Mendis in the line-up.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Skipper Gautam Gambhir has scored only 34 runs in the last five innings after giving a good show in the first five matches. Manvinder Bisla, Eoin Morgan and Jacques Kallis are in good form, and they have Manoj Tiwary and Yusuf Pathan in the line-up too but they were bowled out for just 105 runs in the previous match, which will worry them.
On the bowling front, they have Sunil Narine, Jacques Kallis, Brett Lee, Rajat Bhatia, Sachithra Senanayake and Lakshmipathy Balaji. They took only four wickets in the previous match against MI, letting them put up a total of 170. They will be expected to restrict the score of their opponents.
Prediction:
PWI are an underperforming team with many big hitters. They are expected to beat KKR before their home crowd on Thursday.
SQUADS:
Pune Warriors India: Angelo Mathews (c), Aaron Finch, Abhishek Nayar, Ajantha Mendis, Ali Murtaza, Anustup Majumdar, Ashok Dinda, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Dheeraj Jadhav, Eklavya Dwivedi, Harpreet Singh, Ishwar Pandey, Kane Richardson, Krishnakant Upadhyay, Luke Wright, Mahesh Rawat, Manish Pandey, Marlon Samuels, Mitchell Marsh, Mithun Manhas, Parveez Rasool, Rahul Sharma, Raiphi Gomez, Robin Uthappa, Ross Taylor, Shrikant Wagh, Steve Smith, Tirumalasetti Suman, Tamim Iqbal, Udit Birla, Yuvraj Singh, Wayne Parnell
Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir (c), Brendon McCullum, Brett Lee, Debabrata Das, Eoin Morgan, Iqbal Abdulla, Jacques Kallis, James Pattinson, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Manoj Tiwary, Manvinder Bisla, Shami Ahmed, Pradeep Sangwan, Rajat Bhatia, Ryan McLaren, Ryan ten Doeschate, Sachithra Senanayake, Sarabjit Ladda, Shakib Al Hassan, Sunil Narine, Yusuf Pathan
Where to Watch Live
The match will begin at 8:00 pm IST and will be telecast live on Sony Set Max channel.
