Kumar Sangakkara predicts KKR will win IPL 5

Kolkata Knight Riders’ fantastic performance has forced Kumar Sangakkara to rate the Gautam Gambhir-led side as favourite for the ingoing fifth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Prior to Delhi Daredevils’ victory over Deccan Chargers on Thursday, the Knight Riders were sitting on top of the points table. With eight wins in 12 matches, the Kolkata side is currently placed at the second spot and their
seat in the playoffs is almost confirmed.

Sangakkara was not reluctant to admit that the Knight Riders have the capability to win the crown this season. "On form, I would say Kolkata [Knight Riders]," Sangakkara was quoted as saying.

The Sri Lankan batsman lavished special praise on Gambhir for his wonderful captaincy skills. Gambhir is Kolkata’s leading run-getter so far in the tournament.

"Kolkata [Knight Riders] have been playing exceptionally well. I think you have to give credit to the way Gautam [Gambhir] has managed to got those guys together. They have some top quality in that side,” he said.

"I think the most important thing when you look at all these sides [Delhi and Kolkata] is the quality of the local Indian players. Delhi has got Viru [Virender Sehwag], Ajit Agarkar, Umesh Yadav, Irfan Pathan. So does Kolkata
when you look at Yusuf Pathan, Gautam Gambhir, Manoj Tiwary, [Laxmi Ratan] Shukla," added the Deccan skipper.

On his team’s poor performance so far in the tournament, Sangakkara uttered that the team had lost many important players, who were part of the setup last season. Despite that, he explained that there are plenty of good players
in the Deccan side and they need just to give their best shot.

“We have lost [Pragyan] Ojha and Harmeet [Singh Bansal]. We have lost KP, and he is a big cricketer. So is Harmeet. He has done a wonderful job for Deccan and is very useful on selected tracks. One of the other things that we
can do is look for a good bowling coach, who can help the youngsters especially a guy like Veer [Pratap Singh]," he said.

With only a couple wins so far this season, the Chargers are currently languishing at bottom of the table.

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Posted by Rana Nasir Ghafoor on May 10 2012. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry