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Kolkata: For a man who has mastered the art of winning with limited resources, the 9-wicket pounding at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium must have been hard to digest for Shane Keith Warne. Within 48 hours of that forgettable Friday, though, Warne gets the chance to set the record straight when Kolkata Knight Riders host Rajasthan Royals at Eden Gardens on Sunday.
KKR go into game four of their campaign in IPL-4 on the back of two convincing wins. But the likes of Gautam Gambhir and Jacques Kallis, chief architects of the Jaipur triumph, have played enough cricket not to take the Royals for granted and be ready for a Warne backlash.
The good thing about this restructured KKR team is that it is looking a stronger and more purposeful unit than in the first three seasons. The opening-night follies, which saw them snatch a 2-run defeat against Chennai, have been rectified and the Knights are ready for a gallop in their quest for Mission Semifinal.
Batting is their strength, and with Kallis striking the ball as well as he has ever done in a 16-year career, the team is breathing easy. And skipper Gambhir showed in Jaipur how destructive he can be if when he uses his feet discreetly.
The KKR middle-order has enough skill and firepower, although the real test for Manoj Tiwary, Yusuf Pathan and Eoin Morgan will come on a day when Kallis and Gambhir are back in the hut early.
Brett Lee and Shakib Al Hasan have added teeth to the bowling, which looked a tad bare in the first two games. Gambhir, though, will have to use Lee judiciously. The ideal scenario would be to have the seasoned Australian go flat out for a couple of overs in search of a wicket before returning at the death, or earlier, depending on the opposition's progress.
The Jaipur jolt would have taught Warne a lesson or two. The first would be to restore Shane Watson to his customary opening slot in place of Amit Pauniker. There is scope for a reshuffle in the bowling, too, with the medium-pace of Amit Singh and Siddharth Trivedi getting too predictable.
For a change, KKR will be going into a game with fewer pieces to fit into the jigsaw puzzle than their opponents.
Teams from
Kolkata Knight Riders G Gambhir (capt), S Ladda, L Balaji, R Bhatia, MS Bisla, SP Goswami, BJ Haddin (wk), Iqbal Abdulla, JH Kallis, B Lee, EJG Morgan, YK Pathan, JL Pattinson, PJ Sangwan, Shami Ahmed, Shakib Al Hasan, LR Shukla, RN ten Doeschate, MK Tiwary, JD Unadkat
Rajasthan Royals SK Warne (capt), SA Asnodkar, STR Binny, J Botha, DL Chahar, AA Chavan, A Chopra, AP Dole, ND Doshi, R Dravid, SM Fallah, FY Fazal, AL Menaria, S Narwal, JDP Oram, Pankaj Singh, AG Paunikar, AM Rahane, AS Raut, D Salunkhe, PR Shah, A Singh, SW Tait, LRPL Taylor, SK Trivedi, SR Watson, DH Yagnik
Match facts
Sunday April 17, 20111 (day/night)
Start time 2000 local (1430 GMT)
