Daijiworld Media Network

Ranchi, May 15: A warm welcome to one and all for the 65th match in the Indian T20 League. The match between Kolkata and Pune assumes a lot of importance for Kolkata as a win will still keep them in the hunt for the knock-outs. Pune will be looking to spoil the party and knock Kolkata out of the competition today.

Kolkata have won the toss and elected to field.

Finch: 'It's been a while since we won a game. Our motivation in this game is to knock Kolkata out of the competition. We have to keep competing hard and back ourselves. The pitch looks good, it has some grass on it so hopefully it comes on to the bat nicely. We want to give something back to our fans. 4 changes today - Ali Murtaza, Luke Wright, Ishwar Pandey and Raiphi Gomez are playing.'

Gambhir: 'We don't want to think too ahead of us. We want to concentrate on today's game. You'll put too much pressure on yourself if you go into a game thinking it's a must-win. We just want to play our game and play it to our potential. We have a lot of respect for Pune. They have match winners in the side and they have nothing to lose. They can come all guns blazing and we have to respect them. Hopefully there are many more runs on this pitch than in the one the last game.'

Morgan: 'We're still in with a chance. A few results have gone our way and now we have to do everything possible to keep our chances alive. Pune still remain a dangerous side. They haven't really fired yet but today could be the day for them. The pitch here is similar to the one at Kolkata - it helps our spinners a lot and we're happy about that. If results do go our way, you never know what could happen. It happened to Chennai last year as well.'

Teams:

Pune (Playing XI): Robin Uthappa(w), Aaron Finch(c), Manish Pandey, Yuvraj Singh, Luke Wright, Angelo Mathews, Raiphi Gomez, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ali Murtaza, Wayne Parnell, Ishwar Pandey

Kolkata (Playing XI): Manvinder Bisla(w), Gautam Gambhir(c), Jacques Kallis, Ryan ten Doeschate, Yusuf Pathan, Manoj Tiwary, Debabrata Das, Rajat Bhatia, Sachithra Senanayake, Sunil Narine, Lakshmipathy Balaji

Match Preview

On a high after back-to-back wins, Kolkata will start favourites against the struggling Pune when the two bottom-half teams clash in Ranchi on Wednesday. Having achieved back-to-back wins, the Gautam Gambhir-led Kolkata may have to again depend on off-spinner Sunil Narine and experienced all-rounder Jacques Kallis against Pune, a team they beat only last week.

Both played pivotal roles in their win against Bangalore in their previous match. Kallis, who had an excellent outing with both the bat and ball against Bangalore, had said on Sunday that winning would motivate KKR to strive for what seems like an unlikely playoff berth.

Pune, on the other hand, would strive to sign off their campaign on a winning note to make up a bit for their 12 losses and a bottom finish. Pune would have to largely depend on Yuvraj Singh, but he would have to adapt well to the pitch which did not encourage big hitting during the KKR-RCB tie.

This had prompted Kallis to observe that the track at the Jharkhand State Cricket Association International Stadium was not ideal for Twenty20 cricket.

Supporting Kallis` observation, former Bihar Ranji Captain Adil Hussain said toss would be vital once again as the pitch appears not to "suit" limited overs cricket.

The Warriors, meanwhile, have been woefully out of sorts in all departments of the game. Only opener Robin Uthappa and all-rounder Angelo Matthews have shown some spark of late.

The batting is yet to fire in unison and only the openers have scored some runs at the top. Barring skipper Aaron Finch`s three half-centuries and Uthappa`s couple of half-centuries this season, no other Pune batsman has scored a fifty so far.

Yuvraj has managed just 205 runs from his 11 games, while dangerous batsman Steve Smith has returned to Australia due to a back injury.

Bowling also remains a big concern for Pune, especially at death as most of their bowlers have leaked runs. Pace spearhead Ashoke Dinda has been expensive in most of the games he has played.