Kolkata Knight Riders v Auckland live Champions League T20 2012

A new week beckons with no dearth of cricket as Champions League continues on Monday. After the double headers over the weekend, Monday will see only one match being played in Group A as Auckland Aces take on Kolkata Knight Riders.

Kolkata Knight Riders, the winners of Indian Premier League, had a rough start to the tournament as they were thrashed by Delhi Daredevils on Saturday.

The 52-run loss largely exposed their problems against genuine pace bowling with the batsmen not able to get going. Gautam Gambhir, the captain, will not be too relieved either as Auckland also boast of a strong bowling attack.

The only possibility then will be to ask his batsmen to buckle up as the top four batsmen had only one run between them. Manoj Tiwary top scored with 33 as the team was restricted to 108.

The bowlers are not too much of a worry on the other hand with Sunil Narine, as expected, amongst the wickets. One change however that seems imminent will be of Laksmipathy Balaji who conceded 61 runs in his four overs.

Their rivals Auckland have made it to the Champions League through the challenging route of topping the qualifying round.

The two wins though would have given the team plenty of confidence as they take on Indian domestic champions.

The two wins in the qualifying round were comfortable with targets being chased with ease. Azhar Mahmood was central to their success with both bat and ball and he will be one man the Knight Riders will be wary of.

Martin Guptill, Kyle Mills and Lou Vincent’s presence in the team speaks volumes of the experience that they possess in all departments of the game.

On paper, they may look the weaker side but that is one tag that the captain Gareth Hopkins is not too fazed about.

The match starts at 5.30pm local time.