IPL 6: Kolkata elect to bat against Chennai at Eden Gardens

Kolkata Knight Rider have won the toss and have elected to bat against Chennai Super Kings at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

Kolkata bring Laxmi Ratan Shukla in place of out-of-form opener Manvinder Bisla.

On the other hand, Chennai Super Kings are fielding an unchanged side.

In 2012, Chennai had beaten Kolkata at Eden Gardens in a last-ball thriller, though Kolkata did return the favour in the return game and then again in the final.

Gautam Gambhir - 235 runs from five innings - has been the in-form batsman, providing Kolkata with good starts, while Jacques Kallis did play one super innings - 41 against Sunrisers Hyderabad - but has scored only another 40 runs from four innings so far. And Manoj Tiwary, such a crucial part of Kolkata's winning campaign in 2013, has aggregated just 61 runs in four innings.

After a slow start to their IPL VI campaign, losing to Mumbai Indians in the first game and then later to Pune Warriors India - both matches at home - Chennai are getting back on track. Between the losses to Mumbai and Pune, Chennai had beaten Kings XI Punjab in Mohali as well as Royal Challengers Bangalore at home. But after the decimation of Delhi Daredevils by 86 runs at Feroz Shah Kotla on Thursday, and the good performance of the top-order batsmen in that game, Chennai are starting to look like the team that has the best record in the IPL over the years.

Squads

Chennai (Playing XI): Michael Hussey, Murali Vijay, Suresh Raina, S Badrinath, Dwayne Bravo, MS Dhoni(w/c), Albie Morkel, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Chris Morris, Mohit Mahipal Sharma

Kolkata (Playing XI): Gautam Gambhir(c), Jacques Kallis, Manoj Tiwary, Eoin Morgan, Yusuf Pathan, Debabrata Das(w), Laxmi Shukla, Rajat Bhatia, Sunil Narine, Sachithra Senanayake, Lakshmipathy Balaji


ADITYA KUMAR SINGH
PGDM 2nd SEM