Mumbai Indians (MI) will play its 11th match of the season and also it is in Wankhede, Mumbai will host Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in tonight’s clash. Mumbai Indians have been knocked out of the tournament and they have played like amateurs this season, despite being eliminated from the competition Mumbai Indians will play for their reputation and will give a strong yet good farewell to their fans by playing a good amount of cricket by win all remaining matches.
Kolkata who have been in solid touch yet lost the two matches against Rajasthan Royals and Punjab Kings while defending totals. They won the last match against the Delhi Capitals and gave a farewell to their home crowd with a win. Openers are in Midas touch and scoring runs and building big partnerships, the middle order is stable, and finishing touches by Russell and Rinku are beneficial for the team registering big totals. Skipper Shreyas Iyer is also having a good season with the bat, committing fewer mistakes is what everyone expects from him and it’s good to see that. Starc should improve his bowling bowl original lengths, and Suyash Sharma should be added to the playing XI his role will be important in today’s match.
Mumbai Indians need to sharpen their mind first they should plan their strategies which are missing, and use bowlers perfectly, skipper Hardik should take responsibility for batting up the order and scoring runs which is a huge concern, after the declaration of the World Cup squad Hardik should take more responsibility as he is appointed as deputy of Rohit Sharma.
Rohit Sharma should concentrate and practice more against left-arm bowlers who have been his enemy throughout the season. Except for Jasprit Bumrah other bowlers should plan well and bowl correct line lengths so that Bumrah won’t be a lone warrior in bowling. Currently, Mumbai Indians stand in 9th position with 6 points and Kolkata Knight Riders stand in 2nd position with 12 points.
Journey- Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders
Mumbai Indians, who are five times champions have been shoddy throughout the season being a strong line-up of players not playing up to their mark, even skipper Hardik Pandya’s performance is very poor and his behavior very immature, these things have made Mumbai Indians almost eliminated from the tournament.
Mumbai’s losing streak continues but today they are playing in Wankhede in front of a home crowd so the intensity will be higher and will try to bounce back. Rohit Sharma will try to score big runs, currently, he scores single-digit runs and his form has lost somewhere. Bowlers need to gear up and co-operate with Bumrah or else bowlers will find themselves in trouble.
Kolkata Knight Riders, two times champions are playing a champion team openers are scoring runs, and the finishing touches are in good flow. Despite scoring 261 runs onboard Punjab Kings chased down the target very easily bowlers didn’t plan well so they conceded a lot of runs and the target was chased. The main concern is about bowlers who should be on their toes and give their best. Shreyas Iyer should lead well, as he is playing in his home ground so he will score runs too.
Stats
- Will KKR bowl Narine early for his match-up against Rohit? In all T20s, Rohit has scored 187 runs off Narine’s 171 balls while getting out nine times.
- Suryakumar has been watchful against KKR’s spinning duo Narine and Chakravarthy, scoring 89 runs off 78 balls against them in all T20s while getting out just once. Will he try to take them on on Friday, considering MI’s top order hasn’t been firing of late?
- Tim David has been batting pretty low for MI but he will hope he gets to face Andre Russell, having smashed him for 57 off 25 balls in all T20s so far
- Narine has faced just nine balls from Bumrah so far for four runs and one dismissal
- Rohit Sharma needs another 29 runs to reach the 12000-mark in T20s
- MI’s win percentage of 71.8% against KKR in the IPL is the most dominant head-to-head record in the league
Head-to-Head
MI 23 – KKR 9. The overwhelming numbers in favour of the home teams look even more one-sided at the venue with MI leading KKR 9-1.
Match-ups
Jasprit Bumrah should be the one to bowl up front to make an initial dent into the batting of KKR whose openers, Phil Salt and Sunil Narine, have been in fearsome form. They may bring in Kumar Kartikeya in place of one of the spinners.
Mitchell Starc should be bowling to Rohit Sharma, who has shown vulnerability to left-arm pacers this season, having got out five times in 10 games.
Probable XI: Ishan Kishan (wk), Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya (c), Nehal Wadhera, Tim David, Mohammad Nabi, Gerald Coetzee, Kumar Kartikeya, Jasprit Bumrah (Impact Substitute: Naman Dhir)
Probable XI: Philip Salt (wk), Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer (c), Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Mitchell Starc, Vaibhav Arora, Anukul Roy, Varun Chakaravarthy. (Impact Substitute: Angkrish Raghuvanshi)
Pitch Report
Dew hasn’t been as conspicuous as it has been in Chennai, but chasing is always the favorable option in Mumbai. Twenty-six out of the 42 matches have been won batting second since IPL 2021 and seven out of 11 since IPL 2023. It’s extremely humid in Mumbai and the temperature is expected to stay around 30 degrees even around 11 pm, which won’t make bowling second too much better.
Also Read: https://goworldwide.co.in/ishan-kishan-reflects-on-mis-first-victory/