Tridents out to show they belong

Saturday, September 20, 2014
Start time 2000 local (1430 GMT)

Compare the overseas contingent for the two sides, and it seems like a massive mismatch is lined up: Kings XI Punjab can call on top-drawer international talent in Glenn Maxwell, George Bailey, Thisara Perera, David Miller and - later in the tournament - Mitchell Johnson, while Barbados Tridents have the less luminous talents of Sri Lankan opening batsman Dilshan Munaweera, allrounder Jeevan Mendis, Zimbabwe's Elton Chigumbura, New Zealand allrounder James Franklin and South Africa's Neil McKenzie.

To make matters worse, Tridents are missing their captain and Twenty20 superstar Kieron Pollard, the vastly experienced Shoaib Malik and allrounder Dwayne Smith - their three best batsmen in the Caribbean Premier League this season.

But it might not be all one-way traffic. McKenzie knows a thing or two about beating fancied IPL teams in the Champions League, having made deft half-centuries in 2010 and 2012 to help South Africa's Lions franchise defeat Mumbai Indians. They also have a solid pace attack, which includes Ravi Rampaul and Jason Holder, both of whom have plenty of experience of playing in Twenty20s in Indian conditions.

That attack will be severely tested though against a batting line-up that is arguably the best in the IPL. On Thursday, Kings XI gave another demonstration of their batting might - even ducks for Virender Sehwag and Miller didn't prevent a barrage of big blows that took them to victory with plenty of deliveries to spare. Can Tridents stop the batting machine?

Kings XI Punjab WLWLW (most recent first, completed matches only)
Barbados Tridents WWWLW

Kings XI were missing Johnson and Sandeep Sharma due to injuries in their first game, but instead of the experienced L Balaji or the highly-rated domestic allrounder Rishi Dhawan, they picked Railways' Anureet Singh. He showed it was a good move too, getting the new ball to swerve round and then producing a burst of leg-stump yorkers towards the death to stem the runs.

In a squad filled with players lacking international experience, Ravi Rampaul - the leading wicket-taker in the CPL - will have a major role to play. Ben Hilfenhaus and Doug Bollinger rattled the Kings XI top order on Thursday with the new ball, something Rampaul will have to repeat, given the depth of the Kings XI batting.

"We are not intimidated. We are a good unit. We didn't win the CPL by luck. We played good cricket throughout and if we can continue that momentum in the Champions League, I think we are going to have a good chance of reaching very far."
Barbados Tridents captain Rayad Emrit