Delhi duo up against each other
ESPNcricinfo previews the 2nd match of IPL 2012 between Kolkata Knight Riders and Delhi Daredevils in Kolkata
Match facts
Thursday, April 5, KolkataStart time 2000 (1430 GMT)
Big picture
They are team-mates, opening partners and friends, but on Thursday, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir will knock gloves only at the toss, and will proceed to lead their respective IPL sides against each other. Personally, and internationally, if you were to take out Sehwag's ODI double-century, the duo has had an ordinary time of it. Gambhir hasn't scored a Test century in two years; Sehwag last managed one in November 2010. In that regard this could be a no-win situation: if they do really well as captains here, it won't make any difference to their current standing in international cricket, but failure will add up.Players to watch
Australia may or may not be relieved at his absence in the Test series, but Knight Riders are sure elated with their new acquisition, the all-sorts fingerspinner from Trinidad, Sunil Narine. His economy-rate of under five and average of under 15 speak for themselves.2011 head-to-head
Knight Riders and Daredevils played each other just once last year. Manoj Tiwary's 61 off 47 balls took Knight Riders to 148. Daredevils never came to terms with the slowness of the Kotla surface, and lost by 17.Stats and trivia
Quotes
"I was not expecting to play against him in the very first match. That's the only game of cricket in my life, which I don't enjoy. This is a game where I can't handle it. Otherwise I would love this game. But this is what our job is. We have to be honest to our teams and make sure we do well for our teams, even though we are brothers. Hope a situation does not arise where I'm bowling the last over to him with 10-15 runs required. That's the only time when I think I would be thinking negative. Otherwise I will always have a challenge. I will be really happy if he scores a 50 or 100 and we go on to win the match."Daredevils' Irfan Pathan on the prospect of facing his brother, Knight Riders' Yusuf Pathan
Wasim Akram, Knight Riders mentor, on Gautam Gambhir
Sidharth Monga is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo