ASTUTE EYE Stephen Fleming

I find it somewhat ironical that I will make my Eden Gardens debut only after having retired from Test and one-day International cricket but I have the Indian Premier League to thank for this opportunity to play at one of the world’s greatest cricketing venues.

The only time I was inside the stadium was during the opening ceremony of the 1996 World Cup, and I spent exactly a day-and-a-half in Calcutta then on that occasion. Having played at venues such as the MCG and Lord’s, I am no stranger to cricket history, which makes it all the more satisfying to finally get a game at Eden Gardens.

The thought of facing up to Shoaib Akhtar as 80,000-odd spectators get behind him is immensely exciting, and this is one contest I am looking forward to because it is a supreme challenge. To face a fast, aggressive bowler like him and not just to defend one’s wicket but actually score runs off him.

Plenty of players have described their disbelief at the level of noise and excitement that the Eden crowd can generate and I anticipate a great experience.

Understandably, morale among Kolkata Knight Riders’ supporters must be a little low after Friday’s heavy loss to the Mumbai Indians but watching that game drove home a fact that I have been a big believer in for quite a while: if you win the toss, you need not always bat.

Particularly in Twenty20, batting second gives you a sense of certainty about the way you need to pace your chase. A big reason why teams that win the toss bat first in a Test match or a one-day game is the desire to exploit the conditions first.

With matches beginning at 8 in the evening, that consideration is obviously no longer valid.

When you bat first on a good track, you are obviously constantly worried about the fact that you aren’t scoring enough.

And if it’s a difficult track, as Mumbai’s was on Friday evening, you push yourself too hard.

Yes, it is possible to put teams under pressure if they have to score at nine per over from the start, but as we showed against Delhi, chasing down a big enough total is easier than setting one, particularly in tough conditions like the ones we faced in Mumbai where we thought 160 was a decent total until Sanath Jayasuriya took the game on to another level.

So we are taking nothing for granted against the Knight Riders just because they had one bad outing.