Gambhir's driven quality key to KKR's success

Mumbai Indians' last ball win over the Kolkata Knight Riders will certainly put them in a good frame of mind when they take on Gautam Gambhir's boys at the Wankhede stadium. However as Sachin Tendulkar and Gambhir will both tell their teams that there is no greater uncertainty than in the T20 format.

Here there can be little planning as the best laid plans of men and mice can be blown away by one individual performance. One bad over is all it takes for a team to lose the game so there is no such thing as momentum.

Yes, there is confidence from previous outings and earlier performances and if a team has come through from a totally hopeless position then there will be the belief that they can do it again. Cricket and especially T20 cricket has this wonderful ability to bite when least expected. So there can be no home advantage even if the wicket is prepared to suit the team's strengths.

It can backfire badly. Just because the Mumbai Indians beat the Kolkata Knight Riders at their home ground does not mean that they will beat them in their territory.


They will of course have the tremendous backing of their home crowd.

Mumbai Indians have been chopping and changing their line-up to try and find the best combo. In the last game they played the left-arm spinner Ray Price at the expense of Andrew Symonds. Price is a competitive cricketer who does
not give an inch and brings a lot of steel to the line-up but despite his presence the Kolkata Knight Riders made 179 which was pretty good and this is where Symonds will come in handy since he too can bowl four overs but is likely to score more runs than Price.

The Mumbai Indians have not been able to decide how to use Symonds and this is where they have struggled a bit. If
he can open the batting it will make a difference because quite simply Suman is out of form and short on confidence. Inflexibility cost Mumbai Indians dearly last year and hopefully this year they will have learnt their lessons.

Kolkata Knight Riders have entered the last four for the first time and while many reasons have been given the simple fact is that they are led by a driven man for whom winning is all that matters. He can be a bit explosive when things are not going his team's way, and we have seen that he is only too ready to take up a fight, but the Knight Riders will benefit from Gambhir's tactical nous, which comes when he keeps a cool head.