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Kolkata Knight Riders bowling spearhead, Brett Lee, will take on the extra load of acting as the team’s bowling mentor. Team management said “we are fortunate that someone of the calibre of Brett Lee, who in adding to being a key member of the team, will also mentor the bowling unit. The bowling unit and the whole team will benefit from Brett’s control in this area.”

Dav Whatmore has resigned as head coach of the Kolkata Knight Riders IPL team. Whatmore is the favourite to become the next coach of Pakistan, and cited his incapacity to discharge his duties with the Knight Riders as he pursues an international role. The PCB has invited Whatmore to Pakistan in the second week of January to discuss his appointment, and the Knight Riders spoken their support of his desire to coach a national team again. Whatmore is a former coach of Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

"We have been most supportive of Dav’s keen interest in pursuing an international coaching role and wish him the very best," Venky Mysore, the chief executive of the Knight Riders, said. "His choice to resign is to ensure that Kolkata Knight Riders are able to plan for the transition and we thank him for that. We also thank him for all his assistance over the past two years" Whatmore’s possession with the Knight Riders lasted two seasons. In his first year, they completed sixth out of eight teams but a totally revamped side under captain Gautam Gambhir reached the knockouts in 2011 before losing to the Mumbai Indians in the Eliminator.

"The team has progressed in the right direction and as always, I wish the team continued success and look forward to them progressing to silverware in 2012," Whatmore said in a statement. Many thanks to those who have supported and believed in me." The Knight Riders have begun a search for a new head coach and would like to have a alternate named before the IPL player auction on February 4. "The head coach is a very important role," Venky Mysore, the franchise's chief executive, told. "It is significant that the coach has ownership of things."

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The Kolkata Knight Riders survived an exciting opener to their CL T20 campaign as they edged to a two-run win against the Auckland Aces in the second qualifier. The New Zealand champions fell painfully short of an upset when, with four needed from the final ball, Kyle Mills could only squirt a Brett Lee yorker away for a single. The Knight Riders expensively-assembled batting order managed only 121 for six batting first, but the Aces failed to capitalize on that with Lou Vincent's 37-ball 40 the only important contribution to the chase.

Vincent had looked set to happily guide his side to victory, hitting 30 of his 40 runs in boundaries, but after he was run out Yusuf Pathan claimed two wickets in three balls to bring his side back into the match. But the New Zealand side failed to find the ropes again, to suffer a defeat which leaves them needing to win their second and final qualifier against Somerset on Tuesday to have any chance of reaching the group stage.

Earlier, the Knight Riders had looked on route for a better score than they managed after openers Manvinder Bisla and Kallis shared 73 in 57 balls. But after Bisla fell for a blustery 45 from 32 balls the IPL side lost their way with four wickets going down for the addition of five runs in 10 balls. A direct hit from Hampshire's Jimmy Adams then ran out Ryan ten Doeschate and when some more good fielding, this time from namesake Andre, caught Shakib Al Hasan backing up too far the Knight Riders had to be happy with a below-par score.

Today’s Matches:

Match 1: Leicestershire v Trinidad & Tobago

Match 2: Auckland v Somerset

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