Indian Premier League 18th match: Rajasthan Royals v Kolkata Knight Riders at Jaipur, May 1, 2008

Indian Premier League 18th match: Rajasthan Royals v Kolkata Knight Riders at Jaipur, May 1, 2008

Confident Rajasthan ready for Kolkata

The Rajasthan Royals, after an inauspicious start, are seeking their fourth successive win. Astutely led by Shane Warne, they have moved up to the third slot in the team standings, and their frugality at the auction (they spent the least), is slowly bearing fruit. In the first of two back-to-back home games, they have to contend with the Kolkata Knight Riders, who, after a rollicking start, have lost two in a row. The departure of Brendon McCullum and Ricky Ponting for their respective international commitments, coupled with Chris Gayle's unavailability for the rest of the season due to injury, will make it that much harder for Kolkata to bounce back. And there is one contest on the sidelines: The battle of the coaches. Warne and John Buchanan had no love lost for each other in their Australia days; how will they interact now?

Team news

Dimitri Mascarenhas, the England allrounder who has earned a reputation for big-hitting (he struck Yuvraj Singh for five successive sixes in an ODI), is available for five games for Rajasthan. He is likely to replace Sohail Tanvir, the Pakistan left-arm seamer. Besides the one change, the rest of the line-up looks settled, with Mahesh Rawat set to continue with wicketkeeping duties in the place of Kamran Akmal .

Rajasthan (probable) 1 Graeme Smith, 2 Mahesh Rawat (wk), 3 Yusuf Pathan, 4 Shane Watson, 5 Mohammad Kaif, 6 Dimitri Mascarenhas, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Dinesh Salunkhe, 9 Shane Warne (capt), 10 Siddharth Trivedi, 11 Munaf Patel.

The departure of Ponting and McCullum means that Kolkata may hand out IPL debuts to Salman Butt and Hodge. Hodge has an impressive domestic Twenty20 record - 1649 runs in 44 innings at 42.28 with a strike-rate of 139.20. The young Debabrata Das showed glimpses of potential during his 29 against Mumbai, and should get another opportunity.

Kolkata 1 Sourav Ganguly (capt), 2 Salman Butt, 3 Brad Hodge, 4 David Hussey, 5 Mohammad Hafeez, 6 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 7 Laxmi Ratan Shukla, 8 Ajit Agarkar, 9 Murali Kartik, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Ashok Dinda.

Match scheduled to begin at 16:00 local time (10:30 GMT)

Hours of play: 16.00 start, First Session 16.00-17.20, Interval 17.20-17.40, Second Session 17.40-19.00

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