Sport - Cricket

‘We are in a confident mood’

Hyderabad: Pakistani paceman Shoaib Akhtar was the cynosure of all eyes as he went through the practice session on the main ground as well as at the nets outside it, along with Kolkata Knight Riders on the eve of the DLF-IPL match against Deccan Chargers at the Rajiv Gandhi stadium.

However, at a media briefing thereafter, the Kolkata team’s Laxmi Ratan Shukla remained non-committal about Akhtar’s participation in Sunday’s match.

“The team management will decide about it,” he said, when asked about Akhtar’s chances of seeing action.

“But, obviously, if he does play, it will be a big advantage for us since he is such a great bowler,” he added.

Shukla’s team-mate David Hussey who was also present at the briefing said the team had a good chance to win the contest against the local outfit since the morale of his players was very high at present after the win in the previous match.

About Brad Hodge’s absence, Hussey stated that the Aussie player will be missed but the team had several talented players to fill up the gap. “We are in a confident mood after our last win and we hope to carry forward the momentum,” he added.

Hussey felt the toss could turn to be an important factor. If his team batted first and posted a total of about 200 or more, it could turn out to be a major plus point.

He was of the opinion that the heat (Sunday’s match will begin at 4 p.m.) will not have any great impact on the performance of the players.

“The tournament has progressed quite a bit and all of us have adapted ourselves to the heat,” said Hussey.

He said that the wickets here were different but foreign players taking part in the IPL tournament had learnt to adjust their game and technique to suit the prevailing conditions and were therefore putting up good performances.

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