Mumbai Indians (MI) will look for their first win in the second leg of Indian Premier League (IPL) when they take on Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi. MI are placed fourth in the points table with four wins from eight games. The Rohit Sharma-led MI have lost their customary first match and now need wins to stay in contention of qualifying for their playoffs as other franchises are catching up with them in the standings. One such team is KKR who had a horrible first leg. A convincing win against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) earlier this week has boosted their confidence. A win against MI may result in them entering top four.
Head to Head
The past is in favour of MI. The five-time IPL champions have beaten Kolkata-based franchise in 22 out of 28 games. Even the recent record has not been in KKR’s favour as they have lost their last four matches against MI. In the previous season, KKR were no match for the defending champions. However, one statistics that works in KKR’s favour is that they won five out of six games in Abu Dhabi last season.
Key battles - Andre Russell vs Jasprit Bumrah
When hard-hitter Andre Russell comes in to bat, we may see the MI skipper turning to Jasprit Bumrah. The Indian speedster has dismissed Russell three times conceding 51 runs. The strike rate of 127.5 does not look threatening too by Russell’s standards.
Rohit Sharma vs Sunil Narine
If Rohit is fit to play against KKR, skipper Eoin Morgan may introduce Sunil Narine in powerplay overs. Narine has dismissed Rohit six times in IPL and conceded 129 runs at a strike rate of 108.4. If Rohit plays, he may look to give the strike to the other batsman against the unorthodox spinner.
Kieron Pollard v Andre Russell
Kieron Pollard has not bowled much against Russell in the IPL so far. However, Russell’s strike rate against the veteran MI all-rounder is just 64. The KKR batting mainstay has been dismissed by Pollard only once in his IPL career.
Dinesh Karthik v Rahul Chahar
Dinesh Karthik’s record against right-arm leg-spinners has been forgettable of late. Chahar has only conceded nine runs against Karthik and dismissed him twice. The wicketkeeper-batsman may look to see off Chahar and target fast bowlers against MI.
The Boult factor
For MI, the X-factor will be Trent Boult. The left-arm pacer has taken 20 wickets in powerplay overs since IPL 2020, which is most by any bowler across franchises. Boult was impressive with the new ball against RCB as well taking two wickets.
Milestone loading
If Rohit plays, he needs 18 more runs to get a unique record to his name. The 34-year-old will become first player in IPL history to score 1,000 against runs a franchise. In 28 matches he has played against KKR, he has scored 982 runs.
Predicted Playing XIs:
MI: Rohit Sharma (c), Quinton de Kock (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Saurabh Tiwary, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Adam Milne, Rahul Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult
CSK: Venkatesh Iyer, Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana, Eoin Morgan (c), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Lockie Ferguson, Varun Chakravarthy, Prasidh Krishna
