Deccan Chargers will be hosting Kolkata Knight Riders at their home ground in what promises to be a tough match, on 11th May. Both teams have seen their share of successes and failures in IPL, but while for the Chargers it has been an inspired revival, Kolkata looked invincible after straight wins but suffered demotivating losses after that. That gives DC an edge, and it promises to be fun at Uppal tonite.
Deccan Chargers is captained by the prolific Indian test batsman V V S Laxman, and the team has big international stars in Australian big-hitter Adam Gilchrist, South African opener Herschelle Gibbs, Pakistani dynamite Shahid Afridi, New Zealand allrounder Scott Styris, Sri Lankan pacers Chaminda Vaas, Nuwan Zoysa, and the reliable Chamara Silva. Andrew Symonds is unfortunately out of this tournament after getting back to Australia for national duty against the West Indies late last month.
The team also consists of Indian youngsters and seniors such as Rohit Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, Dwaraka Ravi Teja, P Vijaykumar, D Kalyan Krishna, Halhadar Das, N Sarveesh Kumar, Arjun Yadav, Venugopal Rao and Sanjay Bangar. Robin Singh is the coach of the outfit.
The Shahrukh Khan owned Kolkata Knight Riders is captained by Saurav Ganguly. The other members of the outfit are Brad Hodge, David Hussey, Brendon McCullum (wk), Mohammad Hafeez, Ricky Ponting, Salman Butt, Tatenda Taibu (wk), Umar Gul, Ajit Agarkar, Murali Kartik, Laxmi Shukla, Ishant Sharma, Rohan Banerjee, Ranadeb Bose, Aakash Chopra, Debabrata Das, Ashok Dinda, Iqbal Abdulla, Saurasish Lahiri, Cheteshwar Pujara, Prasanta Saha and Yashpal Singh. John Buchanan is the coach.
Chris Gayle, who suffered a hamstring injury, will not take any further part in the tournament - however the franchise received a shot in the arm when Rawalpindi Express Shoaib Akhtar was cleared to take part in the tournament.
Entry is by tickets of Tickets of Rs. 250, Rs. 500, Rs. 1,000, Rs. 1,500, Rs. 2,000 & Rs. 2,500 per head. Please contact the Hyderabad Cricket Association at 2790-5676 for further details.