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Hyderabad: Kings XI will be hoping that their skipper, who has looked a pale shadow of his former self, gives his side a flourishing start when they take on Deccan Chargers on Saturday.
But the focus will be on 27-year-old Valthaty who has shot into the limelight with his blazing knock against the Super Kings. Though the Chargers have a lethal pace attack in Dale Steyn, Ishant Sharma and Manpreet Gony, Valthaty showed the other day that he is no respecter of reputations.
"I am hopeful of a turnaround and know that Adam Gilchrist is a brilliant team leader. But he is not a magician and should be given time to settle down," Preity Zinta had remarked on Tuesday, a day before her team Kings XI Punjab pulled off a sensational six-wicket win over defending champions Chennai Super Kings.
Pace vs power is what this high-voltage clash will be all about on Saturday night at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Uppal.
Apart from being a 'brilliant team leader', Gilchrist, it seems, is a 'magician' too as he conjured up a winner in little known Paul Valthaty and the rest seems to be history in the making. The Australian wicketkeeper had been in a similar situation midway through IPL 1 as Deccan Chargers were in the dumps and the management turned to him to lead the side in place of an injured VVS Laxman.
By then it was too late and the Chargers finished at the bottom. Gilchrist's magical skills came to the fore when he inspired his side to triumph in the African Safari the following year and did his credential no harm in IPL 3 as the Chargers finished fourth.
However, one was surprised that the Chargers did not think it worthwhile to retain Gilchrist for the new season.
David Hussey, Punjab's most expensive buy at the auction, is expected to come in, but it will be interesting to see who makes way for him. Excluding either Ryan Mclaren or Ryan Harris will weaken an already frail-looking bowling attack, while Shaun Marsh has been prolific for Punjab in past seasons.
Deccan may continue to leave out the $1.1mn-worth Cameron White, given the form JP Duminy showed in the last match, and Dan Christian's all-round abilities. They will need to think of a way to move those two up the order. Manpreet Gony will probably continue to play in place of Pragyan Ojha - the second-highest wicket-taker in IPLs - on a track that is expected to favour the seamers.
Teams from
Deccan Chargers KC Sangakkara (catp & wk), A Ashish Reddy, Anand Rajan, Ankit Sharma, AA Bhandari, B Chipli, DT Christian, KH Devdhar, S Dhawan, JP Duminy, MS Gony, Harmeet Singh, IR Jaggi, MJ Lumb, CA Lynn, I Malhotra, A Mishra, PP Ojha, KP Pietersen, DB Ravi Teja, JN Shah, I Sharma, S Sohal, DW Steyn, J Theron, CL White, AS Yadav
Kings XI Punjab AC Gilchrist (capt & wk), L Ablish, Amit Yadav, BA Bhatt, Bipul Sharma, PP Chawla, SD Chitnis, P Dogra, RJ Harris, DJ Hussey, KD Karthik (wk), P Kumar, R McLaren, VS Malik, Mandeep Singh, SE Marsh, DA Miller, AM Nayar, NJ Rimmington, N Saini, SJ Srivastava, Sunny Singh, PC Valthaty
Match facts
Saturday April 16, 2011 (day/night)
Start time 2000 local (1430 GMT)
