Toss Winner - Kolkata Knight Riders won the toss and chose to bowl first
Mumbai Indians beat Kolkata Knight Riders by 10 runs
Knight Riders’ battle to overcome poor record against Mumbai
Mumbai Indians to win
Tournament: Indian Premier League 2021 | Format: T20 | Venue: MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai, India | Toss: To Bowl
Bet NowWe are into the 5th game of the Indian Premier League and the Kolkata Knight Riders who started with a win in the last game shall look to defeat the Mumbai Indians. Kolkata played well in the last game to defeat Sunrisers Hyderabad while the Mumbai Indians went down against the Royal Challengers Bangalore continuing with their poor record in the season opener.
Mumbai have dominated the proceedings between the two sides over the last six seasons winning 11 out of 12 games against the Kolkata Knight Riders. It will be a huge mental battle for the KKR given this poor record and it will be interesting to see if they are able to turn the tide in this game and register their second consecutive win for the season.
Eoin Morgan would be extremely pleased with the way his side played in their last game against the Sunrisers Hyderabad. It was a comfortable 10 run win for the side in the end as they batted well and held their nerves towards the end of the game. Morgan would like his side to carry that confidence and not be bowed by poor record against Mumbai.
Nitish Rana looks in tremendous form at the moment and the side would be expecting a good start from him and Shubman Gill. Rahul Tripathi also did well in the last game and needs to play well in the middle order along with Andre Russell and Eoin Morgan. In Dinesh Karthik and Shakib al Hasan the side has good depth in its batting line-up.
Cummins and Prasidh Krishna will have a very important role to play in this game against Mumbai’s strong top order. Varun Chakravarthy was expensive in the last game and shall have to do well here in the middle overs along with Shakib Al Hasan. Harbhajan Singh and Russell will need to play important roles to contain the Mumbai Indians’ batsmen.
Top Batsman – Shubman Gill
Top Bowler – Pat Cummins
Eoin Morgan (c), Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Andre Russell, Shakib Al Hasan, Pat Cummins, Harbhajan Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy
Shubman Gill, Varun Chakravarthy, Prasidh Krishna, Pat Cummins, Nitish Rana, Eoin Morgan, Harbhajan Singh, Andre Russell, Dinesh Karthik, Shakib Al Hasan, RA Tripathi
It was yet another first game of the season and another loss for Rohit Sharma’s side, seventh in a row. The Mumbai Indians skipper would like to draw positives out of the game where they lost to the Royal Challengers Bangalore by 2 wickets of the final ball. Rohit would like his team to draw inspiration from their excellent record against the KKR and earn their first points of the season in this game.
They will look for a good start in this game from Sharma and Chris Lynn as the latter played well in the last game. The middle order is strong for the team with Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan scoring runs in the last game. Kurnal Pandya, Hardik Pandya and Kieron Pollard missed out in the last game but these three are explosive players down the order and shall look to make contributions in this game.
Jasprit Bumrah looked good in the last game but the side would need Trent Boult to support him well in this game as the Kiwi was expensive. Marco Jansen had a good debut and he would look to bowl tight lines in the middle overs with Krunal Pandya. Rahul Chahar has to bowl better lines here and the presence of Hardik and Pollard adds to the bowling options for the side.
Top Batsman – Rohit Sharma
Top Bowler – Jasprit Bumrah
Rohit Sharma (c), Chris Lynn, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Rahul Chahar, Marco Jansen, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah
Marco Jansen, Trent Boult, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Rahul Chahar, Ishan Kishan, Quinton de Kock, Rohit Sharma, SA Yadav
There would be slight clouds over Chennai on April 13. There would be lot of humidity in the air which will make the conditions tough. Batsmen would have to focus on accumulating runs here. Any side reaching a score of 170 runs on this surface would be happy while batting first in this game.
MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai is one of the best venues for T20 cricket in India balancing it out between the batsmen and the bowlers. Batsmen have to play to the merit of the ball to do well at this venue. The track is slower here and this makes it a good venue for the spinners though fast bowlers have struggled here in the past.
The wicket has looked good in both the innings so far though there has been some slowness on the surface. It will be a tricky surface to bat on in the first innings and both the sides would have this in their mind. Hence the side that wins the toss here is likely to opt for bowling first in this game.
Kolkata Knight Riders are coming into this game with a win and this is something that would make the side confident. But they have always succumbed to the pressure playing against the Mumbai Indians and this holds against them. Mumbai Indians have a very strong batting line-up and this would add to their confidence going into this game and make them favorites here.
Mumbai Indians to win
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