Knight Riders come calling to master’s turf

When you have played a match less than 24 hours back and when you are supposed to turn out for a game in the next 24 hours, there’s no way you can have a proper training session.

So, as the Mumbai Indians and the Kolkata Knight Riders, both of whom lost their respective ties on Saturday, arrived at the Brabourne Stadium, the venue for Monday’s match, all they ended up doing was having a light workout and mingling with each other.

While most of the MI stars preferred to rest in the hotel instead of attending the optional practice session, those from Sourav Ganguly’s team preferred to spend a lot of time in the dressing room dissecting their disappointing loss to the Rajasthan Royals.

Does that mean there was no action on the field? Not at all! Though both KKR and MI go into Monday’s game on the back of disappointing losses, the players from both sides didn’t miss the opportunity chat with their ‘mates’.

While Ganguly had a long chat with his East Zone team-mate Saurabh Tiwary, Brad Hodge hopped over to the MI nets to say a hello to Kieron Pollard, who not so long back featured in the Big Bash, Australia’s domestic Twenty20 tournament.

And, as the MI players were returning to the dressing room, two ladies ---Catherine and Alex — interacted with almost each one of them.

After all, the wife and daughter of KKR coach, Dav Whatmore — whose previous assignment was with the National Cricket Academyin Bangalore — knew the likes of Shikhar Dhawan and Tiwary well enough to strike an informal interaction.

Amidst all the lazy hits, one West Indian, MI all-rounder, Dwayne Bravo, had a serious workout in the nets as he slogged hard till it became too dark to carry on. But more than Bravo, the focus will be on the West Indies skipper, Chris Gayle.

Though Gayle preferred to rest in his hotel room, it is learnt that the burly batsman had recovered from the viral infection.

So, ladies and gentlemen, fasten your seatbelts and wait for the Gayles, the Tendulkars and the Jayasuriyas to explode.

Rayudu available for selection Ambati Rayudu, who hurt his elbow while attempting a diving catch off Jacques Kallis on Saturday, is available for selection against Knight Riders. Although head coach Robin Singh said that they were “awaiting medical reports” before taking the final call, Hindustan Times has learnt that Rayudu didn’t fracture his elbow and didn’t feel any pain on Sunday.