Match 4: Kings XI Punjab vs Rising Pune Supergiant
Holkar Cricket Stadium (Capacity 30,000)
Saturday, 8th April
16:00 hrs IST
After dismal performances year after year that failed to attract crowds at their original home venue PCA Stadium, Mohali, the Kings XI Punjab have shifted base in search of stadium filling fans. They may have made a sound move in relocating to the Holkar Stadium in the commercial capital of the state of Madhya Pradesh- Indore. The Chandigarh based franchise has just not seemed to have cracked the code in the IPL, failing to win any titles and making it to the playoffs only twice in 9 attempts. They have made umpteen changes to their setup, be it the playing squad or the support staff. It remains to be seen whether strategically made changes can help them overturn their fortunes.
Punjab, wooden spooners last season, begins its 2017 campaign against the Steven Smith led Rising Pune Supergiant, who are themselves in a bid to produce a turnaround after their forgettable debut last year. The Supergiant have begun this year’s season on a positive note with a resounding victory against the slow starters Mumbai Indians. Their aim would be to build on this promising start.
Team News:
Kings XI Punjab will heavily depend on their explosive batting to come good. Martin Guptill, Hashim Amla, Shaun Marsh and Manan Vohra would be front runners for the openers’ slots to be followed by the belligerent duo of Maxwell and Miller. Newly appointed captain, Glenn Maxwell, would be keen to perform and justify the faith the franchise has shown in him. It would be interesting to see the combination they field, whether they draft in English limited overs skipper Eoin Morgan in the playing XI or not. Wriddhiman Saha, on the back of a successful home season, will be high on confidence and would be raring to avail another opportunity to prove his worth in the shortest format.
Where the home team will surely be found wanting is their bowling department. Mohit Sharma with his variations is a handful; young Sandeep Sharma can ask batsmen questions with his swinging ball and Axar Patel is a wily customer when it comes to left arm orthodox spin bowling. However, apart from them the Punjab bowling outfit wears a very somber look. They have bought Varun Aaron and T Natarajan, who will specially be in the viewer’s radar, but the team really yearns for an X factor in their bowling line up. They were also dealt a crushing blow in the run up to this season when Murali Vijay was ruled out with injury. The experienced but expensive (in terms of bowling economy) Ishant Sharma has been roped in as his replacement.
The Punjab XI will face a stiff opposition in the Pune Supergiant. Ajinkya Rahane’s sublime 34-ball 60 ensured that Pune’s opening woes were settled. Captain Steven Smith seems very unlikely of getting bored of scoring heftily any soon. This year’s costliest acquisition Ben Stokes also shall not take much time to get into his own, as is evident from his 21 run cameo against Mumbai. The calming influence of Dhoni is that which any team can only benefit from. Rajat Bhatia’s performance each year leaves us wondering as to why he never represented India. The leg spinning duo of Imrah Tahir and Adam Zampa lend the side the cutting edge while bowling. What Smith would be looking for will be richer dividends from his opening bowling pair of Ashok Dinda and Deepak Chahar who had combined figures of 6-0-78-0 in their first match of the season. Indian left arm pacer Jaydev Unadkat could get a look in, with Dinda making way for him.
Ideal Playing XI
Kings XI Punjab: Manan Vohra, Hashim Amla, Glenn Maxwell ©, David Miller, Gurkeerat Mann, Marcus Stoinis, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Axar Patel, Mohit Sharma, Sandeep Sharma, T. Natarajan
Rising Pune Supergiant: Ajinkya Rahane, Mayank Agarwal, Steve Smith ©, Manoj Tiwary, MS Dhoni (wk), Ben Stokes, Rajat Bhatia, Deepak Chahar, Adam Zapma, Imran Tahir, Jaydev Unadkat
Pitch and Weather report: Central India is under the influence of the beginning of what could be a torrid summer season ahead. With the match being scheduled to have a 4 p.m. start, temperatures can be expected to soar as high as 37 degrees on the Celsius scale. Relative humidity being 7%, occurrence of precipitation can only be called miraculous.
The pitch at Indore has a reputation of being a high scoring strip and who knows this better than Kings XI Punjab coach Virender Sehwag. In the previous two IPL matches hosted by the city way back in 2011, Punjab successfully chased down 179 within 19 overs and the now defunct Kochi franchise chased 98 in around 8 overs. Thus the captain winning the toss shall put the opposition into bat and give his team a better chance of winning the encounter. With no regional proximity, fans won’t mind who is entertaining them as long as they are entertained.
History: Rising Pune Supergiant made their IPL debut only last season, meaning that the two teams have come face to face only twice. Punjab got the better of Pune on the first occasion, but MS Dhoni struck 23 runs off the final over to win Pune an inconsequential match when the two faced each other the second time.
Match prediction: The Kings XI Punjab will be looking to start off their campaign on a positive note and also settle on team combinations. It seems unlikely that they could break the winning momentum of the Pune Supergiant, who are indeed ‘rising’ under their new leader.