Kolkata aim for another fireworks display

Kolkata: Kolkata Knight Riders will have to live up to their opening day's explosive performance against Hyderabad's Deccan Chargers when the two face off in the Indian Premier League at Eden Gardens today.

Sourav Ganguly-led Knight Riders mauled Bangalore Royal Challengers by a massive 140 runs in the inaugural match on Friday and raised the bar for every team in the cash-rich Twenty20 tournament.

Deccan Chargers, though, are one of the stronger outfits of the competition and they have packed their side with some top international players led by stylish V.V.S. Laxman.

Challenge

Riders' Brendon McCullum has not only given a dream beginning to cricket's newest avatar, but has also thrown a challenge to other big-hitters to showcase their batting prowess and satiate the ever-increasing appetite of the crowd, after his electrifying 158 off just 73 balls that blew away Rahul Dravid's Challengers.

Squads

Kolkata Knight Riders: Sourav Ganguly (captain), Ishant Sharma, Murali Kartik, Ajit Agarkar, Chris Gayle, Ricky Ponting, David Hussey, Brendon McCullum, Mohammad Hafeez, Salman Butt, Umar Gul, Tatenda Taibu, Laxmi Shukla, Saurasish Lahiri, Siddarth Kaul, Iqbal Abdulla, Wriddhiman Prasanta Saha, Rohan Banerjee, Yashpal Singh, Aakash Chopra, Debabrata Das, Cheteshwar Pujara.

Deccan Chargers: V.V.S. Laxman, Sanjay Bangar, Halhadar Das, Herschelle Gibbs, Adam Gilchrist, Doddapaneni Kalyankrishna, Pragyan Ojha, Dwaraka Ravi Teja, Sarvesh Kumar, Shahid Afridi, Rohit Sharma, Chamara Silva, R.P. Singh, Scott Styris, Andrew Symonds, Chaminda Vaas, Venugopal Rao, Paidikalva Vijaykumar, Arjun Yadav, Nuwan Zoysa.