Kiwi Bond arrives to strengthen KKR attack

Bond will add fire to the pace department of Knight Riders, which already boasts of South African Charl Langeveldt, Ishant Sharma, Ashok Dinda and Ajit Agarkar.But, the Kiwi pace spearhead’s availibility for Knight Riders match against Chennai Super Kings on Tuesday is still to be decided.

“He just arrived from a long flight this morning. Let’s see how it goes tomorrow morning,” said a KKR source.Knight Riders are still expecting the services of Brendon McCullum and Chris Gayle among their overseas recruits.

Fiery opener McCullum is currently busy with New Zealand’s two-Test series against Australia from March 19-31.The other big hitting opener, Gayle, is expected soon, said the source. In absence of Gayle and McCullum, Knights have their makeshift openers in Manoj Tiwary and Brad Hodge who stood in a 101-run partnership to set up the issue against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Sunday evening.

Knights had a two-hour optional practice session on Monday morning with the benched players along with Langeveldt and Cheteshwar Pujara going on the rigours.

Rain threat
If the weather forecast is to be believed, rain may play spoilsport in the match. The Met department has predicted rain and thundershowers late in the afternoon. The match is scheduled to begin at 20:00 hrs.

"There are chances of scattered rain and thundershowers which may gather in the Gangetic West Bengal towards late afternoon tomorrow," GC Debnath, director, regional meteorological centre, Alipore, said.Currently, the Kolkata side, who have two wins from two matches, are on top of the standings with four points from two matches.