Resurgent RCB to take on KKR at Eden

Both the teams39 last fixtures at their respective home grounds were washed out and they would pray that the weather God does not play spoilsport again tomorrow even as the local Met department has forecast rain and thundershowers in next 48 hours The Bangalore outfit might have lost to KKR in the first leg but their campaign was back on track after three wins on the trot and both teams stay equal on league table with nine points from eight matches each at halfway stage of IPL 5 KKR players LR Balaji Narine McCullum Bisla Photo AFP One man KKR would need to watch out for would be Chris Gayle who has been in ominous form at the top of RCB batting and he would look to blow away the consistent Kolkata attack something he had done in his last outing at the Eden smashing a 55ball 102 not out with seven sixes sent out of the park After a quiet start Gayle has hit form with a 48ball 81 studded with eight sixes in RCB39s win over Pune Warriors He followed it up with another sizzling knock of 56ball 87 in his side39s win over Kings XI Punjab Against his former franchise that chose not to retain him after the third season the explosive Caribbean opener who has recovered from an upset stomach would look to prove a point With A B de Villiers and Tillakaratne Dilshan in equally devastating form the RCB batting would look to post or chase down a big total Skipper Daniel Vettori has recovered from a niggle that had forced him to sit out in their rainmarred last match against Chennai Super Kings One area of concern for RCB though was that their foreign recruits have been instrumental in the side39s wins and their domestic players like Virat Kohli Saurabh Tiwary Mayank Agarwal and Mohammad Kaif were yet to hit form In the bowling department fresh from his 419 against Rajasthan leftarm spinner K P Apanna would look to relish the slow condition here at the Eden as skipper Daniel Vettori would spearhead the spin attack that also boasts of Muttiah Muralitharan Young fast bowler Harshal Patel has impressed all and sundry in the limited outings he has had and is expected to blossom in the company of experienced Zaheer Khan and R Vinay Kumar as the RCB seemed to be one of the most balanced outfits in this season KKR on the other hand are yet to take full advantage of their tailormade home conditions having won only once from three matches played here with one the last one against Deccan Chargers being abandoned due to heavy rains If the bowlers like Laxmipathy Balaji Shakib Al Hasan and Sunil Narine have been winning matches for KKR their batting is yet to click barring one captain39s knock by Gautam Gambhir who scored a 66 not out in their win over Kings XI Punjab at Mohali That only two batsmen the other being Manoj Tiwary have scored halfcenturies may sound alarming especially with their roster boasting some big names including Jacque Kallis Brendon McCullum and Yusuf Pathan Yusuf who was instrumental in Rajasthan Royals39 triumph in the inaugural edition has aggregated 29 runs from seven matches so far this season averaging a woeful 580 With batting lacking in consistency KKR management may have a look at their English recruit Eoin Morgan who has not played a single match so far this edition Known to be a finisher Morgan should come in handy for the topsyturvy KKKR batting Balaji has recovered from a hamstring injury and so is experienced local allrounder Laxmi Ratan Shukla who should be back in contention after a recovering from injury The Teams From Kolkata Knight Riders Gautam Gambhir Capt Brendon McCullum Manvinder Bisla wk Jacques Kallis Yusuf Pathan Manoj Tiwary Debabrata Das Rajat Bhatia Sunil Narine Laxmipathy Balaji Brett Lee Eoin Morgan Marchant de Lange Ryan ten Doeschate Pradeep Sangwan Mohammad Shami Ahmed Jaidev Unadkat Iqbal Abdulla Iresh Saxena Sanju Samson Sarabjit Singh Ladda Chirag Jani Royal Challengers Bangalore Daniel Vettori Capt Tillakaratne Dilshan Chris Gayle Mayank Agarwal Virat Kohli AB de Villiers wk Saurabh Tiwary Andrew McDonald R Vinay Kumar Zaheer Khan Harshal Patel K P Apanna Charl Langeveldt Dirk Nannes Luke Pomersbach Rilee Rossouw Abhimanyu Mithun Arbar Anjum Kazi Arun Karthik Asad Khan Pathan C M Gautam Cheteshwar Pujara Karun Nair Mohammad Kaif Raju Bhatkal Ronit More Ryan Ninan S Aravind S Thiyagrajan Syed Mohammad and Vijay Zol Match Starts 8pm IST