Struggling with inconsistency, defending champions Mumbai Indians take on in form Kolkata Knight Riders at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Thursday.
This is a battle between the most consistent and the most unreliable outfit of the current edition of Indian Premier League (IPL). On one hand the two time winners Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have been successful in setting the early pace in the league, while defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) have endured an unimpressive start which is stunningly similar to their last few campaigns.
While KKR’s only loss were at the hands of Mumbai, they come into this game on the back of a thrilling final over victory against Rising Pune Supergiants (RPSG). The usually dependent opening pair of Gautam Gambhir and Robin Uthappa failed to recreate their magic in that game but heroes in the form of Surya Kumar Yadav and Yusuf Pathan emerged out of nowhere to take their side home. This killer instinct of the purple brigade will be a cause of concern for Rohit Sharma and co.
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Mumbai on their part struggled with their team composition in the first few matches and shuffled around the batting order a bit too much. They should also consider themselves hard done on two occasions: first versus Gujarat Lions (GL) when an unfancied Dhawal Kulkarni hit Jasprit Bumrah for a four in the final over to make Aaron Finch’s job easy, who finished off the game in the last ball, and second against against Delhi Daredevils (DD) when a last over collision between Rohit and Hardik Pandya proved to be costly.
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Having said that, the Nita Ambani owned side can throw a mighty challenge to their perennial rivals as Mitchell McClenaghan (the purple cap holder) has been able to set up a lethal combination with Tim Southee and Bumrah, while Krunal Pandya has managed to live up to his hefty price tag. With Parthiv Patel scoring heavily in the last game against Kings XI Punjab (KXIP), Rohit will be feeling a lot relieved. The only cause of worry for the hosts will be Hardik’s lack of form and Harbhajan Singh’s failure to provide breakthroughs at crucial junctures.
In spite of having a very poor head to head record against MI (12 defeats to 5 wins), KKR go into the contest as the favourites, simply because they have all their bases covered and their biggest advantage is that Sunil Narine, with a corrected bowling action, is still being able to execute his skipper's plans with ease. The only chink in the armour can be the middle order, which barring the last game against Pune, has remained untested.
Chances of victory
KKR - 65% MI - 35%
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