Daijiworld Media Network

Pune, May 22: After 72 games, we are now at the business end of the IPL. It is the first qualifier match between Delhi Daredevils and the Kolkata Knight Riders. This match is being played in Pune and the pitch is expected to assist the spinners. Kolkata have some wonderful spinners at their disposal and they will be eager to put one over Delhi and qualify for the finals. Delhi, on the other hand, will look to continue their form that they showed during the league stages and register a convincing win. The added incentive for both teams would be that the winner will feature in the final of the IPL for the first time ever. The stakes are thus very high. Stay tuned as we bring you the toss and team updates in a short while.

Kolkata Knight Riders have won the toss and elected to bat

Gambhir: We have played pressure games before this. We are just concentrating on how this game goes. It looks like a good wicket and it should have something in it for everyone. We have some quality spinners so we would like to use this pitch later. We have a good side for any conditions. We go in unchanged, when you have 3 quality spinners in the side, then the quality of the pitch doesn't really matter.

Sehwag: I'm feeling good. I'm up for the play offs and hopefully I deliver today. I think KKR has a very good side, they play good cricket and I think we should be in for a good game today. It looks like a decent wicket and we will just have to try and bowl hard and restrict Kolkata to under 150. Two changes to our side, Ross Taylor and I come in.

Shakib: We definitely want to win this game but we are totally focussed on our game plan. We want to continue the way we have been performing until now. Two days back we had a really good game here so we know this ground well. We had a good practice session and everyone is fit for this encounter.

Teams:

Delhi Daredevils (Playing XI): Virender Sehwag(c), David Warner, Mahela Jayawardene, Ross Taylor, Venugopal Rao, Naman Ojha(w), Irfan Pathan, Pawan Negi, Morne Morkel, Varun Aaron, Umesh Yadav

Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Gautam Gambhir(c), Brendon McCullum(w), Jacques Kallis, Manoj Tiwary, Shakib Al Hasan, Yusuf Pathan, Debabrata Das, Rajat Bhatia, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Sunil Narine, Iqbal Abdulla