DC vs KKR: Desperate times for Deccan Chargers

HYDERABAD: Things are finally beginning to look good for the Kolkata Knight Riders after three long years of struggle. At the midway stage of the tournament, KKR are happily placed to make it to the knockout stage.

A complete overhaul of the team and new leadership seem to have done wonders for KKR who have shown new zeal in IPL 4. A major change has been their mindset.

The Knight Riders are a charged-up lot and the man at the forefront of this massive change is none other than skipper Gautam Gambhir.

Gauti's leadership, barring the first game against Chennai Super Kings, has been spot on. He seems to be the man with the Midas touch and right now seems to be getting everything right.

But the war is still on and Gauti knows that the greatest danger for his team is complacency and that is what the Knight Riders will be wary of when they lock horns with Deccan Chargers at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium on Tuesday.

After losing their first game against the Super Kings, Knight Riders had got their campaign on track by edging out Deccan Chargers by nine runs in their home game.

That win spurred them on to greater deeds and the Kolkata outfit will no doubt be keen to retain their edge over their rivals in their away game.

It has been a roller-coaster ride thus far for the Chargers, who have not been able to put up a consistent performance. There have been flashes of brilliance but on the whole they do not seem to have the ability to lift their performances when needed.

The problem seems to be in their minds as man-to-man the Chargers have a solid side. Their bowling led by Dale Steyn is more than handful. Ishant Sharma and Amit Mishra too have been performing well with the cherry.

But the Chargers' main drawback seems to be the inability to put up a defendable total on board.

Teams (from):

Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir (c), L Balaji, Pradeep Sangwan, SS Ladda, Brett Lee, Iqbal Abdulla, Jaidev Unadkat, James Pattinson, Shami Ahmed, Manoj Tiwary, Eoin Morgan, Rajat Bhatia, Yusuf Pathan, Jacques Kallis, LR Shukla, Shakib Al Hasan, Ryan ten Doeschate, MS Bisla, Mark Boucher, SP Goswami.

Deccan Chargers: K Sangakkara, Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, Harmeet Singh, Amit Mishra, J Theron, Manpreet Gony, Akash Bhandari, DW Steyn, Shikhar Dhawan, DB Raviteja, Arjun Yadav, Sunny Sohal, Abhinav Kumar, Bharat Chipli, Ishank Jaggi, Jaydev Shah, Kedar Devdhar, Chris Lynn, Michael Lumb, JP Duminy, I Malhotra, AA Reddy, Cameron White, Anand Rajan, Daniel