When Gautam Gambhir enters the Ferozeshah Kotla ground on Wednesday wearing the purple jersey with the Kolkata Knight Riders logo on it, of the 22 players on the playing field, he will be the only Delhiite. The irony doesn’t end there. The only Bengal player who would be plying his trade in the match wouldn’t be in KKR colours. Instead, laxmi Ratan Shukla, who represents West Bengal in domestic cricket, would be playing for the Daredevils.
However, this is not the only similarity between the two teams. They have also been united in struggle — both teams have lost five and won just two. When the two strugglers meet in the Capital on Wednesday, it will be interesting to see which one of them proves to be the worse.Going into the match, Daredevils, however, can certainly take heart from the fact that they won the last encounter against KKR in Dubai. And, also the way the 2012 IPl champions panicked and lost six wickets for just two runs against Rajasthan Royals to lose the match from a strong position on Monday. Delhi have bumped into a golden opportunity to revive their sagging fortunes.
KKR, on the other hand, are not as bad as their position (fifth) on the points table suggests. They have lost four consecutive matches but most of them were close encounters. What they are lacking is the ability to close the match from a winning position. The positive side of it is that KKR are continuously putting themselves in a position to win matches.
The same can’t be said for the Daredevils. The margin of defeats (8 wickets, 93 runs, 4 runs, 7 wickets and 8 wickets) has been huge and suggests they haven’t put up a fight. There were high expectations from Delhi’s revamped squad but at halfway stage, they seem to be following their 2013 course to another bottom finish. It is either their batting or bowling that has failed them; rarely have they fired in tandem this season so far.
With half of their matches over with five losses each, both teams will need the second half of their IPl 2014 campaigns to be just the opposite. Though, even five victories from the remaining seven matches might not be enough for them to make it to the playoffs.Cricket is a game of great uncertainties so nothing should be rejected outrightly. And both of these teams have enough firepower to make turn things around. Whether they can do that before it’s too late, only time will tell that. However, one thing for sure is that one of them would definitely register their third win!