Week 8 - Match 4 - Kolkata Knight Riders vs Kochi Tuskers

Welcome to Eden Gardens. Home of the Kolkata Knights Riders.

Pitch Conditions: A touch of grass on this wicket which will offer some swing to the fast bowlers and maybe even a touch of reverse. The pitch may also have some inconsistent bounce which may offer something to the spinners. However once a batsman gets himself in he may well be able to score well as long as he doesn't get too greedy...

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Please post tactics below...

Provisional XI for Kochi:
Brendon McCullum O
V.V.S Laxman
Tanmay Srivastava U25
Mahela Jaywardene O
Gnaneswara Rao
Steve Smith O, U25
Balachandra Akhil
Daniel Vettori O, (c)
Piyush Chawla U25
Shoaib Akhtar O
R.P.Singh U25

Akhtar comes in for Powar, which means that Taylor has to make way for Srivastava to keep the overseas player #s down.


Aktar

Kochi:
Brendon McCullum O
V.V.S Laxman
Tanmay Srivastava U25
Mahela Jaywardene O
Gnaneswara Rao
Steve Smith O, U25
Balachandra Akhil
Daniel Vettori O, (c)
Piyush Chawla U25
Shoaib Akhtar O
R.P.Singh U25

Toss: bowl first, in an attempt to make the most of the grass cover.

Bowling:
Akhtar 4 overs (1,3,5,19)
RP Singh 4 overs (2,4,18,20)
Akhil 3 overs (6,8,17)
Vettori 4 overs (7,9,14,16)
Chawla 3 overs (10,12,15)
Smith 2 overs (11,13)

Akhtar and Singh lead off the attack, trying to make the most of any swing and movement off the pitch and hopefully picking up a few wickets. Aktar bowls through the powerplay, with Akhil coming in to replace Singh in the 6th. Vettori, Chawla and Smith bowl through the middle, trying to keep things tight and taking advantage of any variable bounce that is in the pitch. Singh and Akhtar are back at the death where hopefully some reverse swing will help restrict the total. There are extra overs available for Akhil, Chawla and Smith if any of them are having a good day, or if someone else is having an off one.

Batting:
McCullum is tasked with getting the innings away, he gets plenty of practice on greenish pitches in NZ. Laxman has the anchor role,while Srivastava is no stranger to facing the new ball should he be called on early. Jayawardene should be able to deal with any variable bounce in the middle overs too. The middle and lower order are all capable of scoring quickly, right down to Chawla at 9.

that is a very strong Kochi side, for the conditions

in a must win game for KKR, can they beat kochi...

Toss:Bat first

Chris Gayle
Jacques Kallis
Cheteshwar Pujara
Ambati Rayudu(wk)'
Eoin Morgan
Yusuf Pathan
Sarul Kanwar
Brett Lee
Zaheer Khan
Pragyan Ojha
Muttiah Muralitharan

Gayle and Pathan can bowl if needed.
Overs Allocation

Lee:1,3,17,19
Zak:2,4,18,20
Kallis:5,7,14,16
Ojha:6,8,10,12
Murali:9,11,13,15

like the look of both sides spin attack.