LAST CHANCE FOR BOTH TEAMS

It will be the last chance for the two teams to have any chance to reach the semi finals in the DLF IPL 2010 when Kolkata takes on Jaipur at the Eden Gardens. Ganguly well knows that his side needs to win both the games to come and also that the other results must go his team's way to give the KKR any chance to make it to the semi finals. Ganguly knows well that he will have to inspire his domestic players to win the game that Shane Warne has been doing for the past three seasons. The domestic players have been a key to the success of the Rajasthan Royals and Warne would expect the same to happen today as well.

JUST A STATISTICAL CHANCE

Both captains will know though that its just a statistical chance since three teams are there in with 14 points already and atleast two of those teams can go up to 16 points. This would mean that only one team with 14 points can go through and in that case the net run rate would matter a lot. The RCB have the best NRR and the next best is CSK and these two teams will have the best chance to go through to the knock out stages of the tournament. The DD have got a game against the DC which would mean that the winner of that game can have an assured ticket to the semi finals and the loser will have to wait for the other results to go their way. So once that game is finished there will be at least two teams that would have reached the semi finals and the game today between RCB and MI can also ensure that RCB goes through if they win the tournament. So by enlarge there would be three teams at a minimum with 14 points out of which one team would go through to the semi finals.

Dada and Warne would be well aware of this statistic and both would look to win the game big with better run rate and try and keep their hopes alive to reach semi finals. The KKR have already conceded a lot of negative run rate against the CSK and now that will give the CSK an edge to reach the semi finals once they win their last encounter against the KXIP. Consider the case that CSK loses to the KXIP, it would mean that for the first time in the IPL they would not finish in the top four and would keep the doors for KKR and RR wide open.

THE GAMES PERSPECTIVE

Last time when these two teams met, RR won the game by 37 runs. KKR had the wickets in hand but they failed to accelerate the run rate and eventually lost the game. Then in that team, Ganguly was trying to find form, no Gayle and McCullum were available. Now they have got all the three. Gaguly has already hit three half centries in this tournament and Gayle is back to his best. McCullum is still to find his touch - coming back from a test match tournament would not have helped him - but i am sure that he can get to tandem very quickly. Only cause of concern for the KKR is their bowling and fielding. Just as Ganguly said, they really were pathetic in their game against the CSK and the RCB and i guess the skipper would have surely worked on a lot to sort these problems. Having CSK losing their game against the DD, KKR would fancy their chances because it is still anybody's tournament.

The RR on the other side would look for Shane Watson and Yusuf Pathan to fire in some good innings today. Yusuf Pathan has had a fair IPL - he has had just one good innings, a century against the MI- and Watson didn't look quite good against the RCB. Both these batsman are those that RR would rely much on. Not to forget that Naman Ojha has had a tremendous series and these three can take thee game totally away from the Kolkata side. I wonder if Shane Warne would look to play Yusuf Pathan. The longer he bats, the more he scores and more destructive he becomes.

The stage is well set for a beautiful Saturday with two fantastic match on cards and i would love to see the results go favoring the RCB.