After Kolkata Knight Riders chased down 184 without losing a wicket against the Gujarat Lions on Friday, all the other Indian Premier League have been served a warning by Gautam Gambhir’s unit. Chris Lynn’s swashbuckling 41-ball 93 propelled KKR to favourites status to win the title for the third time or at least make the playoffs. On Sunday, they face a stern test against Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium. Mumbai were outclassed by Rising Pune Supergiant in their first match of the season even after Hardik Pandya’s explosive 15-ball 35.
Mumbai Indians have a clear advantage when it comes to home matches against Kolkata Knight Riders, having won five out of six games between these two sides at the Wankhede Stadium. With history firmly on their side, Mumbai will be given a boost by the presence of IPL’s leading wicket-taker Lasith Malinga and will look to get their act in order on Sunday. Harbhajan Singh might also take the field after other spinners disappointed in their previous outing.
Time: 8 pm
Venue: Wankhede Stadium
TV: Sony Max, Sony Six, Sony ESPN and their HD channels
Results in 2016:
Played: 2
Mumbai won: 2
Kolkata: 0
Mumbai Indians
- Mumbai have beaten Kolkata 13 times in 18 matches - the most any team has beaten an opposition in the IPL.
- Rohit Sharma’s 655 runs is the most by any player against Kolkata. However, at Wankhede, he has scored only 126 runs in five innings against the familiar foes.
“They (KKR) are a very formidable unit, an experienced side. That group has been together for quite some time now and they know how to win matches, they know how to win championships. They showed yesterday how clinical they were against Gujarat. So we have to be very mindful of that. But we just have to play to our strengths, we’ve got a very good team. We just need to go out, execute our game plans and have a very good game.”
Mahela Jayawardene, Mumbai Indian coach
Squad: Rohit Sharma (captain), Kieron Pollard, Lasith Malinga, Harbhajan Singh, Ambati Rayudu, Jasprit Bumrah, Shreyas Gopal, Lendl Simmons, Vinay Kumar, Parthiv Patel, Mitchell McClenaghan, Nitish Rana, Siddhesh Lad, Jagadeesha Suchith, Hardik Pandya, Jos Buttler, Tim Southee, Jitesh Sharma, Krunal Pandya, Deepak Punia, Saurabh Tiwary, Nicholas Pooran, Mitchell Johnson, Karn Sharma, Asela Gunaratne, Krishnappa Gowtham, Kulwant Khejroliya.
Kolkata Knight Riders
- Chris Lynn’s last five innings in T20 cricket read 85*, 84*, 13, 98* and 93*, with all those four unbeaten fifties coming while chasing.
- Piyush Chawla needs four more wickets to overtake Amit Mishra to become the spinner with the most wickets (125) in the IPL. Lasith Malinga leads the list with 143 wickets.
- Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan is back in the KKR squad.
“Momentum is a wonderful thing and Rajkot and Mumbai are not too distant for it to travel with us within two days’ time. Hopefully it will stay in our corner.”
Gautam Gambhir, Kolkata Knight Riders captain
Squad: Gautam Gambhir (captain), Robin Uthappa (wicket-keeper), Darren Bravo, Ishank Jaggi, Manish Pandey, Yusuf Pathan, Chris Lynn, Suryakumar Yadav, Sheldon Jackson (wicket-keeper), Chris Woakes, Rishi Dhawan, Sanjay Yadav, Rovman Powell, Shakib Al Hasan, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Trent Boult, Sayan Ghosh, Piyush Chawla, Umesh Yadav, Sunil Narine, Kuldeep Yadav, Ankit Rajpoot, Colin de Grandhomme (as replacement for Andre Russell)
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