Kolkata Favourites Against Pune

Ranchi: On a high after back-to-back wins, Kolkata Knight Riders will start favourites against the struggling Pune Warriors India when the two bottom-half teams clash on Wednesday.

Having achieved back-to-back wins, the Gautam Gambhir-led KKR may have to again depend on off-spinner Sunil Narine and experienced all-rounder Jacques Kallis against Pune, a team they beat only last week.

Both played pivotal roles in their win against Royal Challengers Bangalore in KKR's previous match.

Kallis, who had an excellent outing with both bat and ball against RCB, had said on Sunday that winning would motivate KKR to strive for what seems like an unlikely playoff berth.

Pune, on the other hand, would strive to sign off their campaign on a winning note to make up a bit for their 12 losses and a bottom finish.

PWI would have to largely depend on Yuvraj Singh, but he would have to adapt well to the pitch which did not encourage big hitting during the KKR-RCB tie.

Teams from:

Pune Warriors: Aaron Finch (captain), Angelo Mathews, Yuvraj Singh, Abhishek Nayar, Ajanta Mendis, Ali Murtaza, Anustup Mazumdar, 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, R Gomez, Robin Uthappa (wk), Shrikant Wagh, T Suman, Tamim Iqbal, Udit Birla and Wayne Parnell.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir (captain), Manvinder Bisla (wk), Yusuf Pathan, Jacques Kallis, Rajat Bhatia, Laxmipathy Balaji, Sarabjit Ladda, Brad Haddin (wk), Debabrata Das (wk), Iqbal Abdulla, Brett Lee, Ryan McLaren, Eoin Morgan, Sunil Narine, Sumit Narwal, Suchitra Senanayake, Pradeep Sangwan, Shami Ahmed, Shakib Al Hasan, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Ryan ten Doeschate, Manoj Tiwary and James Pattinson.

Match facts
Wednesday May 15, 2013 (day/night)
Start time 16:00 local (1030 GMT)