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Deccan Chargers and Kolkata Knight Riders have both changed their captains and Deccan Chargers are led by Adam Gilchrist while Kolkata coach had been floating the idea of multiple captains for KKR. But Brendon Mccullum was declared the captain for this match and they hoped that the change of captaincy would enhance the team’s performance. Mccullum won the toss and decided to bat first. They were quite pathetic with the bat and except Brad Hodge (31 off 34 balls) they failed to impress. The Knight Riders were bundled out for 101 runs in 19.4 overs. R P Singh shone with the ball scalping 4 wickets for 22 runs. The Deccan Chargers cruised through and reached the target in 13.1 overs with great performances by Hershelle Gibbs (43 off 26 balls) and Rohit Sharma (36 off 32 balls). R P Singh won the Man of the Match for his bowling performance.

Full Scorecard

Kolkata
Batsmen Status Runs Balls 4s 6s S.Rate
Brendon McCullum (C) (W) c Adam Gilchrist b RP Singh 1 3 0 0 33.33
Chris Gayle c Harmeet Singh b RP Singh 10 12 1 1 83.33
Sourav Ganguly c VVS Laxman b Harmeet Singh 1 12 0 0 8.33
Brad Hodge c Herschelle Gibbs b Scott Styris 31 34 4 0 91.18
Aakash Chopra st Adam Gilchrist b Pragyan Ojha 11 19 2 0 57.89
Laxmi Shukla st Adam Gilchrist b Pragyan Ojha 8 6 0 1 133.33
Moises Henriques c Rohit Sharma b Scott Styris 6 8 0 0 75
Ajit Agarkar run out (Rohit Sharma) 7 3 0 1 233.33
Murali Kartik not out 10 10 0 0 100
Ishant Sharma b RP Singh 9 9 0 1 100
Ashok Dinda b RP Singh 2 2 0 0 100
Extras: b – 0, w – 1, nb – 0, lb – 4 5
Total: (101 for 10 wickets in 19.4 overs) 101 Run Rate: 5.14

Fall of Wickets1-1 (Brendon McCullum, 1.1), 2-12 (Chris Gayle, 3.4), 3-16 (Sourav Ganguly, 5.2), 4-34 (Aakash Chopra, 10.4), 5-48 (Laxmi Shukla, 12.2), 6-72 (Brad Hodge, 15.3), 7-73 (Moises Henriques, 15.5), 8-81 (Ajit Agarkar, 16.3), 9-99 (Ishant Sharma, 19.2), 10-101 (Ashok Dinda, 19.4)

Bowling (Hyderabad)Bowler O M R W nb wd R/O
Fidel Edwards 4 1 6 0 0 0 1.5
RP Singh 3.4 0 22 4 0 0 6
Harmeet Singh 4 0 23 1 0 1 5.75
Pragyan Ojha 4 0 14 2 0 0 3.5
Scott Styris 4 0 32 2 0 0 8

Power Play
Power Play 1 Overs: 1-6

Hyderabad
Batsmen Status Runs Balls 4s 6s S.Rate
Adam Gilchrist (C) (W) c Moises Henriques b Ashok Dinda 13 11 2 0 118.18
Herschelle Gibbs not out 43 26 5 1 165.38
VVS Laxman run out (Laxmi Shukla) 10 10 1 1 100
Rohit Sharma not out 36 32 3 2 112.5
Scott Styris
Venugopal Rao
Dwaraka Ravi Teja
RP Singh
Pragyan Ojha
Fidel Edwards
Harmeet Singh
Extras: b – 1, w – 1, nb – 0, lb – 0 2
Total: (104 for 2 wickets in 13.1 overs) 104 Run Rate: 7.9

Fall of Wickets1-24 (Adam Gilchrist, 2.5), 2-35 (VVS Laxman, 4.5)

Bowling (Kolkata)Bowler O M R W nb wd R/O
Ashok Dinda 3 0 24 1 0 0 8
Ishant Sharma 3 0 13 0 0 0 4.33
Murali Kartik 4 0 23 0 0 0 5.75
Sourav Ganguly 1 0 8 0 0 0 8
Ajit Agarkar 1 0 17 0 0 1 17
Chris Gayle 1 0 14 0 0 0 14
Moises Henriques 0.1 0 4 0 0 0 24

Power Play
Power Play 1 Overs: 1-6

It has now been officially announced by the Kolkata Knight Riders that there will be only one captain of Kolkata Knight Riders and there would not be multiple captains as declared earlier. This declaration was made after Sourav Ganguly and KKR coach John Buchanan had a four hour long meeting with the owner of KKR and bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan. The multi-captaincy theory made by John Buchanan had attracted a lot of controversy and protests especially in West Bengal. Though Sourav Ganguly has been declared as the only official captain of the KKR team but it has also been announced that there would be a group of advisers or strategists who would guide Ganguly in taking his decisions. These members including Ganguly and Buchanan would comprise the core cricketing team which will give quick suggestions.

Though the statements made by KKR did not mention who exactly would lead the team but it is supposed that Ganguly would be retained as the captain of KKR team.

Sri Lankan captain and member of IPL team Kings XI Punjab Sangakkara feels that Buchanan’s captaincy idea can help in the evolution of cricket. John Buchanan who is the the coach of IPL T20 team Kolkata Knight Riders had suggested that there would be division of duties within four captains in the KKR team. Buchanan concept for Indian Premier League season 2 had made him a source of hatred in Kolkata and West Bengal as the local people could not accept the fact that the powers of the Prince of Kolkata Sourav Ganguly would be diluted. Buchanan had given the suggestion that KKR players like Chris Gayle, Brendon Mccullum and David Hussey should be given captaining responsibility alongside Dada.

Though Buchanan did not find much support amongst the Indian public with his new idea but Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara feels that the concept is quite good. He believes that this concept might come in handy for T20 cricket as the evolving nature of the game requires changes in various aspects including captaincy. However, Sangakkara also said that there might be several problems too in such a concept as four different captains might have ego clashes in the field which might be harmful for the team.

Meanwhile, IPL 2 has not been very helpful for the Indian icons with many of the franchisees stripping the Indian captains of their captaincy. Gilchrist will be the full time captain of Deccan Chargers team in IPL T20 season 2 after the DC franchisees replaced VVS Laxman with Gilly last year. Vijay Mallya’s Bangalore Royal Challengers have dropped Dravid as the captain of the team and instead made way for Kevin Pietersen and Jacques Kallis. The justification given by most franchisees and coach is that these changes are inevitable as T20 is a more youth oriented game. However, only time and the IPL T20 season 2 will tell how these decisions turn out to be.

Kolkata Knight Riders had been one of the most popular teams in the first edition of IPL T20. Shahrukh Khan and his aggressive publicity had helped the team in gaining a lot of popularity although the team was not too good in terms of performance. Shahrukh had gone a step further in IPL season 2 and preparations were going on for Kolkata Knight Riders for a long time. He had even organized TV shows to pick up the cheerleaders for the KKT team. But there has been an unwanted controversy for the last few days with Buchanan saying he is not sure of retaining Sourav Ganguly as the captain of the team. This has resulted in a lot of anger and anguish in the state of West Bengal which had backed KKR to the hilt during IPL season 1. And this controversy might backfire for the Kolkata Knight Riders as many supporters of the team will not support the team to that extent. Ganguly is the Prince of Kolkata and decision against him is bound to result in the lose of support for the team. However, Dada can prove everybody including John Buchanan wrong by hitting the sixes and fours and showing that he is also a very good T20 player.

Lets wait for the coming days and see if this controversy is beneficial or detrimental to the KKR team in IPL t20 cricket season 2.

What do you think? Will this controversy backfire for KKR?