Action hero Jackie Chan was the star attraction in town with less than 24 hours before Super Saturday kicks off.
CHENNAI: Action hero Jackie Chan was the star attraction in town with less than 24 hours before Super Saturday kicks off. He reached Chennai for the music launch Kamal Hassan’s Dasavatharam, reportedly the most expensive Indian movie ever made. Chan’s arrival created a buzz in this movie star crazy city.
On Saturday, the 44,000-odd people will not catch a glimpse of the star-attraction, SRK, who follows the Kolkata Knight Riders around. Getting Chang too the ground wouldn’t be a bad idea.
MS Dhoni’s team is suing one of its brand ambassador’s actress Nayantara for not being at the opening match on Tuesday. She reportedly recovered from a sun stroke but instead of being spotted at the Chidambaram Stadium she was snapped shooting in Hyderabad.
SRK too will not be here dance to ‘korbo, lorbo, jeetbo’ and cheer Sourav Ganguly’s Knight Riders. The Bollywood King is leaving for London to participate in the Zee awards on Friday night.
Such has been the influence of IPL’s most successful cheerleader that Ganguly, the former Indian skipper was asked how much SRK would be missed in the pre-match media briefing. There is also talk of how Khan is being viewed as a lucky mascot as his knights in golden helmets are yet to lose steam in these early days.
“It’s not just the Knight Riders who will miss him, but entire Chennai will miss him,” was Ganguly’s reply. He was also asked about how distracting the skimpily clad cheerleaders!
Coming to action on the field, going by what these two sides have done over the past there should be no shortage of entertainment. Three of the top-four run-getters are in the fray.
With the record of the fastest hundred rewritten three times in the span of a week this game provides the perfect platform for the mark to be brought down further.
Indications of a high scoring game have been there. The Super Kings have scored more than 200 in both their wins. The Knight Riders made 222 in the IPL opener a week back but have also bowled out their opponents in both the game.
Super Kings coach Kepler Wessels believes 200 and a few will be a good total in this format of the game if a team backs it up with good bowling. His batsmen will be up against Ishant Sharma, the lanky paceman on the ride of his life.
Ganguly was confident his bowlers would trouble Super Kings. “Our bowling attack is good and conditioned. If the pitch seams around we have got good pace bowlers and then if there is turn, we have three or four spinners to take control,” he added.
The battle between Dhoni, the ODI and T20 captain on a roll, and the wily and experienced Dada will be the intriguing battle within the battle. It boils down to whose team blinks first now.
The Super Kings practiced in the middle but the wicket going to be used for Saturday’s game was safe. Should be a good, even, track offering the batmen plenty runs. Not too much in it for the bowlers as expected. The 4pm start will not spare the players from facing the heat.
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