IPL 2009 - Kolkata Knight Riders to Become Spoilers
by Juris Graney
IPL 2009 - Kolkata Knight Riders to Become Spoilers
New Zealand’s influence on the Indian Premier League has been less than impressive, as Kolkata Knight Rider’s captain Brendon McCullum will attest.
The normally devastating batsman wicketkeeper is averaging just 10.11 in nine bats this tournament. He even offered to resign from the captaincy if the lost against Delhi Daredevils in their last match.
They did lose, but McCullum looks to have retained his role as skipper but the news hasn’t made an impression on the cricket betting scene in Kolkata’s (+110) match against Royal Challengers Bangalore (-150) today.
Kolkata (P10/W1/L8/NR1) are sitting at the bottom of the table a clear three wins away from second last Bangalore (P10/W4/L6) are now simply playing for pride while Bangalore need another win if they are to keep in reach of the competition.
A loss here and Bangalore’s campaign is over but the chances of that are highly unlikely if their last meeting in match 19 on April 29 is anything to go by.
In that match, which also happened to be Kevin Pietersen's last game in charge, KP opened the bowling and got McCullum out for a first ball duck and their 139 was never going to be enough.
With KP back home and Anil Kumble taking the reins of Bangalore, Kolkata face an even more daunting task, as Kumble’s captaincy is more ruthless than Pietersen.
The only possible way for Kolkata to win is if McCullum can fire.
Considering he scored 158 not out against Bangalore last tournament than it is not impossible, just highly improbable.
