Week 9 - Match 5 - Kochi Tuskers vs Kings XI Punjab

Welcome to the Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium, home of the Kochi Tuskers.

Pitch Conditions: A pitch for skiddy bowlers as well as the slower bowlers with genuine pace bowlers struggling. Their will be a fair amount of spin off of the pitch which may well increase as the match progresses. Medium pacers who can bowl cutters will really enjoy this pitch. This may make batting fairly hard to begin with, except against pace where the ball will sit up a bit, but once a batsman gets used to the lack of pace and the spin off of the pitch he may find that scoring gets easier.

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Please post tactics below...

Akmal will certainly come in for this game. Collingwood may get an outing too, sounds like his bowling could be useful on here. Maybe Bresnan misses out, not his pitch this one...

possible XI:
Kieswetter
Gambhir
KP
Akmal
Collingwood
RTD
Chitnis
B. Sharma
Nehra
M. Karthik
R. Sharma

Dont think Kies should play here.

you think Davies would do better on this one? Kies plays spin pretty well, and is an international class T20 batsman...

skiddy bowlers......sressanth springs to mind for kochi.

Kochi XI:

Brendon McCullum O
V.V.S Laxman
Brendan Tayor O U25
Mahela Jaywardene O
Gnaneswara Rao
Steve Smith O, U25
Balachandra Akhil
Daniel Vettori O, (c)
Piyush Chawla U25
Sreesanth
R.P.Singh U25

Toss: bat first to try and get the best out out of the pitch before it starts turning any more. McCullum starts with a licence to attack the new ball, while Laxman, Taylor and Jayawadene are all used to playing on slow tracks. The return of Sreesanth in place of Akhtar means that there's room in the side for the in-form Taylor who adds a spin bowling and handy fielding option. As usual the middle/lower order has plenty of batting in it, with Rao, Smith, Akhil, and Vettori all quick scorers, while even Chawla at 9 is handy.

On the bowling side there are stacks of options, with RP Singh and Akhil capable of taking pace of the ball and bowling cutters, while Sreesanth's skiddy seamers lead the attack. Vettori, Chawla and Smith make for a more than handy spin line up, with Taylor as extra back up if needed.

Sreesanth and RP open up the bowling before giving way to Akhil and Vettori, with Chawla and Smith joining in in the middle. Rao offers back up medium pace and Taylor back up spin if required, and there are spare overs for Smith, Akhil and Singh if someone else gets hit.

Sreesanth 4 overs (1, 3, 18, 20)
RP Singh 3 overs (2, 4, 19 )
Akhil 3 overs (5, 7, 17)
Vettori 4 overs (6, 8, 14, 16)
Chawla 4 overs (9, 11, 13, 15)
Smith 2 overs (10, 12)

Kings XI team
Gambhir
Davies (wk)
Pietersen
Umar Akmal
Collingwood
Ten Doeschate
Chitnis
Bipul Sharma
Rahul Sharma
Nehra
M. Karthik

Selection: a few changes this week dictated by the conditions. Davies comes in for Kieswetter as he will enjoy the slower conditions, and also because he is the superior keeper and this pitch will test the keepers. Collingwood also comes in, for Bresnan, whose bowling wouldn't be suited to this pitch, while Colly's cutters will be a dangerous weapon. Umar Akmal returns for Sourav Ganguly, and Murali Karthik replaces James Pattinson.

Toss: bat first, get runs on the board, and apply scoreboard pressure in the worsening conditions.

Batting tactics: Gambhit will anchor the innings, with the rest of the top order playing around him. We will look to take advantage of the PP against the erratic Sreesanth and RP Singh, as the new ball should be the best time to bat on here. Davies in particular will look to tee off early, something he's very adept at doing. Sensible aggression will be the name of the game in the middle-overs, before mayhem ensues at the death. Our batting line-up is particularly strong this week, with a quality top 3, followed by Akmal and Colly who both love the subcontinental conditions, and then big hitters RTD, Chitnis and Bipul Sharma (a genuine all-rounder batting at 8). Notice that our top 6 are all fine players of spin, and will look to put away any loose deliveries which are expected of the wrist spinners Chawla and Smith.

Bowling tactics: Nehra will take the new ball, mixing up his pace with cutters (as well as looking for whatever swing may be on offer). He will share it with Karthik, who is experienced at bowling in the PPs and is a canny operator. There will be very little pace on the ball throughout the innings, with Colly bowling his cutters (which should work well on here), RTD and Rahul Sharma rotating through the middle-overs. Rahul Sharma and Nehra finish off at the death. We believe we have an attack well suited to these conditions, with a good balance of three seamers and three spinners.

Over allocation:
Nehra (1,3,5,19)
Karthik (2,4,15,17)
Bipul Sharma (6,8)
Collingwood (7,9,16)
RTD (10,12,14)
Rahul Sharma (11,13,18,20)

obviously, six bowling options, so if one of them gets slapped about, we re-allocate.