Yet another day and yet again a do or die contest make its way. The flamboyant Mumbai Indians will tour Kolkata to take on the hosts, Kolkata Knight Riders. The loss will be the end of the road for Mumbai Indians while the win will help them to make a turnaround in the tourney. Meanwhile, Kolkata would eye to strengthen their chances in playoffs’ race.
Mumbai Indians – Need to carry-on the momentum
Finally, Mumbai Indians found the winning ways in the tourney and they need to carry-on with it by all means. They are taking on wounded Kolkata Knight Riders in their den, Eden. The positive to look out from the venue is Rohit Sharma’s incredible love affair with Eden Gardens. He also smashed it beautifully at this venue and Mumbai would hope him come good to see Mumbai Indians cross yet another hurdle.
Hardik Pandya’s form with the bat and ball is the pleasing sight for Mumbai Indians while the return of Jasprit Bumrah into his own is an icing on the cake. Surya Kumar Yadav is knocking it to the perfection while Evin Lewis has become a hit or miss player. Krunal Pandya too giving his aiding hand in the batting department while Duminy will help them if a quick collapse happens. So, the batting department looks solid.
In a case of quick runs, they can use Ben Cutting at any position of the game. Coming to bowling department, Mumbai Indians’ bowlers are doing a great job, off late. They are winning those crucial moments of the game to keep the team on high. Mayank Markande is giving the crucial breakthroughs for the team time and time again.
All in all, they are up for taking on Kolkata within the 48 hours of time and they don’t mind it until it helps the boys to stay in the good space of things.
Kolkata Knight Riders – Would like to take revenge at home
Kolkata Knight Riders appeared to be in the game in their last fixture against Mumbai but somehow, they ended up on the wrong side of the things. However, they got themselves to blame for it as they tried Shubman Gill at the opening position by dropping down Sunil Narine who is performing superbly in the openers’ role.
After the comeback of Nitish Rana in the team, the batting department looks quite solid but unfortunately, Kolkata couldn’t find a perfect batting order. The combinations are seeing one among Narine, Gill and Rana to come down the order which is not working well. However, they need to address it quickly and most probably, they will stick to their old combination.
As far s bowling department is concerned, they are heavily depending on the spin section. Karthik is using them as the breakthrough bowlers and also asking them to deliver in the death overs of the game.
While doing so, he is asking his front-line pacers to finish their spell in the initial stages of the game. The move gave a bitter-sweet moment for DK and it is intriguing to see how he would nurture his side against star-studded Mumbai Indians’ lineup.
All in all, a perfect game of cricket is set to entertain the crowd tonight. Mumbai will eye nothing less than the victory while Kolkata Knight Riders would love to get back into winning ways.
Possible Playing XI:
KKR: Dinesh Karthik (c & wk), Piyush Chawla, Mitchell Johnson, Robin Uthappa, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Chris Lynn, Kuldeep Yadav, Nitish Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Shubman Gill
MI: Jean-Paul Duminy, Rohit Sharma (c), Mitchell McClenaghan, Suryakumar Yadav, Ben Cutting, Evin Lewis, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Ishan Kishan (wk), Krunal Pandya, Mayank Markande
When & Where to watch:
Date & Time – 9th May 2018, 20:00 IST
Venue – Eden Gardens, Kolkata
Live Telecast – Star Sports Network, Jio and Hotstar Premium customers