Knight Riders Ready to Take on Defending Champions Deccan Chargers

Mumbai: It's not just a winning start that Kolkata Knight Riders will be looking at when they face defending champions Deccan Chargers in the opening match of the third Indian Premier League (IPL) at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Friday.

To begin their campaign with a positive mindset, shred every bit of negativity that had seeped in such abundance last season, to gel as a team and enjoy their cricket will play equally on their minds.

In 2009, the South African sojourn turned out to be a disappointing outing for the team. With John Buchanan as coach, who eventually lost his job after facing a lot of criticism, and Brendon McCullum as captain, the Knights never remained in fray for any top slots throughout the tournament. This year, with Sourav Ganguly in charge of the affairs, a fresher outlook is what the team - with Dav Whatmore as the new coach - will be seeking.

"I don't believe in team meetings and discussions as much as I believe in going out there and executing things. 90% of what we do, has to be the execution and 10% what we meet and discuss," Ganguly said on the eve of the match after a strenuous net session.

The fact that KKR will be taking on Deccan, the 2009 champions, makes the job relatively tougher. Adam Gilchrist, the DC skipper, is confident of continuing from where his team had left last year. "There are many young Indians this time who want to play aggressive and smart cricket. That is something almost all of them seem to have imbibed," he says.

Both teams are running short on the foreign quotient. For Deccan, only four foreigners - Andrew Symonds, Herschelle Gibbs, Chaminda Vaas and Gilchrist - have arrived while KKR have only six - Brad Hodge, Owais Shah, Ajantha Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Mashrafe Mortaza and Charl Langeveldt - to choose from.

Teams from

Deccan Chargers: A Gilchrist (capt-wk), A Reddy, A Singh, A Bilakhia, H Gibbs, H Singh, VVS Laxman, M Mishra, P Ojha, D Ravi Teja, R Sharma, RP Singh, T Suman, B Sumanth, A Symonds, C Vaas, V Rao and A Yadav

Kolkata Knight Riders: S Ganguly (capt), V Aaron, A Agarkar, A Dinda, E Ahmad, R Gavaskar, B Hodge, I Abdulla, M Kartik, H Khadiwale, A Mathews, C Langeveldt, A Mendis, C Pathak, C Pujara, W Saha (wk), O Shah, I Sharma, LR Shukla, M Tiwary and G Vignesh

Stats and trivia

• Kolkata possess the two highest run-scorers in Twenty20 cricket. Hodge has 2547 runs in 77 innings at a strike-rate of 129 and David Hussey has scored 2355 runs at a strike-rate of 139.
• Adam Gilchrist was the second highest run-scorer in IPL 2009 - 495 at a strike-rate of 152. RP Singh was the tournament's highest wicket-taker, with 23 at an economy-rate of just under seven an over.
• Kolkata beat Deccan in both matches during the 2008 season, while DC beat KKR in 2009 in South Africa.

Match facts
Friday, March 12, 2010 (day/night)
Start time 20:00 local (14:30 GMT)