Daijiworld Media Network

Kolkata, May 5: Welcome to the encounter between Kolkata and Pune. The clash promises to be one filled with high levels of drama and intensity as Sourav Ganguly leads his side against his former franchise in what is essentially his home ground. One can't really say for sure which side the crowd will be rooting for, but one can be assured that there will be some strong support for Ganguly. To talk a little more about the sides, Kolkata have been riding on a high and find themselves placed quite comfortably at the second spot. Pune on the other hand have suffered four consecutive losses and after a good start have let themselves down a little.

This match should be a real nail biter, so fasten your seat belts folks and enjoy the action. Weather was supposed to be a bit of a concern but it looks good now and hopefully we will have a good game of cricket.

Pitch report: The wicket looks pretty flat and shouldn't have any assistance for the seam bowlers. The track does look conducive to spin and Navjot Singh Sidhu reckons that the team that wins the toss should bat first.

Kolkata Knight Riders have won the toss and elected to bat

Sourav: It feels great to play in Kolkata again. I have played here before and it hasn't changed. There are some nerves. We have to try and get back to winning ways, it is a new day and hopefully we can do well. This wicket is different from the one that we played on in the Ranji season, it doesn't have as much of grass as it did during the season. I would have batted as well but I don't think it will change much over the 40 overs. We have got Mathews in.

Gambhir: So far it has been good and hopefully we can continue the same way. The entire team has been performing well as a unit. Hopefully we can play some good cricket and get the results. It is always a good feeling for a captain when you have a lot of quality foreign players. Today we have gone in with Marchant de Lange instead of Lee. No doubt about batting first. Whenever we have played freely we have played well so hopefully we can do that today. We just want to give our batsmen some freedom to play well.

Teams:

Pune Warriors (Playing XI): Robin Uthappa(w), Manish Pandey, Michael Clarke, Sourav Ganguly(c), Steven Smith, Angelo Mathews, Mithun Manhas, Wayne Parnell, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Murali Kartik, Ashok Dinda

Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Gautam Gambhir(c), Brendon McCullum(w), Jacques Kallis, Manoj Tiwary, Yusuf Pathan, Debabrata Das, Rajat Bhatia, Laxmi Shukla, Sunil Narine, Iqbal Abdulla, Marchant de Lange