Friday, May 16, 2008

Ganguly hopes Shoaib fires again

Kolkata Knight Riders captain Sourav Ganguly said he hoped Pakistani fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar will repeat his last performance in tomorrow's crucial IPL tie and run through the Mumbai batting lineup.

'It is fantastic to be in the same side as him (Akhtar). So far I have been at the receiving end at all times,' Ganguly said here on Thursday. About his expectations from Akhtar, he said, 'That he gets Sanath Jayasurya, Sachin Tendulkar and Robin Uthappa out and finishes with five wickets.'

Akhtar, facing a five-year ban from the Pakistan Cricket Board which as been relaxed for a month, produced a match winning bowling spell in Kolkata's last game, taking four wickets to demolish the Delhi's batting lineup.

Ganguly said the Kolkata team had other quality fast bowlers like Ishant Sharma and Ajit Agarkar in their side and expected them to get some assistance from the pitch at the Wankhede here.

'We will hope to finish Sanath Jayasurya's run of form with the last game,' he said.

The tie against Mumbai would be important with the last five games expected to be the crucial ones, Ganguly said.

'No one is sure about their place in the semi finals and only the Deccan Chargers (Hyderabad) and Royal Challengers (Banglore) are behind. Other than that all other teams could qualify for the semi-finals,' the Kolkata captain said.

The Kolkata team had been affected by the departure of many of their players, but both the batting and bowling departments had done well even after that, Ganguly said.

0 comments:

 
If you have any issues regarding copyright against the site content, Images. Please email me and we will remove all offending content.