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Hyderabad: After stumbling in the final leg of their campaign in IPL 4, Knight Riders have a chance to redeem themselves as they take on Auckland Aces in CLT20 qualifiers.
The Knight Riders had dished out some memorable performances in IPL 4 as they looked a top class team especially since they had not done anything worthwhile till then.
A fourth place finish was not what they had expected but nevertheless it gave them a chance to compete in the qualifiers.
Shah Rukh Khan's team will, thus, be keen to make sure that they don't mess it up as they fight it out for a berth in the main tournament. The Knight Riders, however, received the unkindest of all cuts when their skipper Gautam Gambhir was ruled out of the tournament after suffering a concussion during India's recent tour to England.
Gambhir had played a key role in the Knight Riders' campaign and his absence could be a big blow for the team. "Gautam's loss is pretty big. We have had him for all of IPL 4. He was the captain and we will obviously miss him. He is a very good player. But that is unavoidable for us and we have to get on with it with the best we can," coach Dav Whatmore had said.
The onus will now be on Jacques Kallis to lead the Knight Riders into the main tournament. The Knight Riders are also without England international Eoin Morgan, who is out with an injury.
But the Knight Riders are up against a quality side in the Auckland Aces, who have half-a-dozen players who have donned the Kiwi colors. It is this experience of their players at the international level which could tilt the balance in favour of the New Zealanders. Martin Guptill the other day smashed 98 in a practice game to show that there is no rustiness though they are coming off a long winter break.
Andre Adams is coming off a fine English county season and HRV Cup, where he topped the bowling charts for Nottinghamshire and Auckland. Can he reproduce that form at the batting paradise that is the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad?
Yusuf Pathan will be smarting after being overlooked for India's tour of England. Brutal batting aside, he could pose problems with his offspin - Yusuf conceded a miserly 6.10 runs an over in IPL 2011, while claiming 13 wickets to finish second on Kolkata's wickets table.
Teams from
Auckland Aces GJ Hopkins (capt & wk), AR Adams, JHK Adams, MD Bates, C de Grandhomme, MJ Guptill, RM Hira, AK Kitchen, BP Martin, CS Martin, KD Mills, C Munro, RJ Quiney, DR Tuffey, L Vincent.
Kolkata Knight Riders JH Kallis (capt), L Balaji, R Bhatia, MS Bisla (wk), G Gambhir, Iqbal Abdulla, B Lee, EJG Morgan, YK Pathan, Shami Ahmed, Shakib Al Hasan, RN ten Doeschate, MK Tiwary, JD Unadkat
Stats & trivia
Match facts
Monday September 19, 2011 (day/night)
Start time 20:00 local (14:30 GMT)
