By Sunil Gavaskar
The Sunrisers go to Kolkata having won a close game against the Delhi team.
While that is reason for confidence, the fact remains that they are making heavy weather of chasing small totals and their batting depends wholly on Sangakkara and White.
It is their bowling which is the envy of others with Steyn and Ishant Sharma who can get the early breakthroughs and put pressure on the opposition.
There is Amit Mishra too who is bowling well so they have a nice balanced attack, but it is their batting which is the big worry and unless they do something about it, they may falter as the tournament progresses.
The problem with most young Indian batsmen who only play the IPL is that they have little idea about how to build an innings and while the T20 format does not give too much time for batsmen to settle down, proper cricketing shots still work better than the wild slogs that some of the batsmen are attempting.
Their temperament and common cricketing sense is also in question when having got a couple of boundaries they go for the glamour shots and hole out in the deep even when the asking rate isn’t high.
Mind you it is not just the Indians but even experien-ced overseas ones who are guilty. One of the best examples is David Hussey when the Punjab team needed just one run to win and had 47 balls in which to get that run. All that was needed was to push the ball and take the winning run. Instead Hussey went for a wild slog and was brilliantly caught at midwicket only for a no ball to give them the winning run.
The adrenalin may be pumping fast but experience tells that whatever the situation, a cool head is what takes you over the line.
Kolkata will need cool heads for they have lost their way somewhat but it is still early days in the tournament and they can always come back. They need to win this game and stop the losing streak.
Their batting has not quite clicked and they may be looking to get McCullum in the side since Bisla has not quite recaptured the form of the last year’s finals.
Rajasthan have been the pick of the tournament because they don’t look dangerous but surprise quite a few people. Dravid has been leading from the front and when Watson strikes form, they will be a formidable unit indeed.
The Kings Eleven have not played as much as the other teams, so they have the advantage of seeing what is happening around them but they too will want to win by a big margin because their net run rate slipped quite badly after the heavy loss to Chennai.