With almost every franchise having played a game each, almost half the teams have registered their first points on the board. Mumbai has started off in their usual fashion of losing the first match and will be hoping to kickstart their campaign with a win over Kolkata Knight Riders at Chennai Stadium on Tuesday.
Mumbai will be hoping they can repeat their heroics of last year, after doing a double over them over two games. In the first match, an exemplary performance with the bat by Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav saw Mumbai winning the game by 49 runs. Kolkata couldn’t overcome the Mumbai Indians in the repeat showdown, winning comfortably by 8 wickets.
Kolkata will be buzzing after their win against the Sunrisers, with their top-order batsman hitting surreal form. Mumbai will be hoping to move up a gear after losing their closely fought match against the Royal Challengers Bangalore. With Knightriders hoping to make early strides in the league and Mumbai looking for their first points, both teams will be wanting the win.
Will Mumbai start to click and their matchwinners prove too much? Or once again will unlikely heroes rise for the Knightriders to lead the team over the line?
Match Toss Time: 19:00 Local (13:30 GMT)
Match Start Time: 19:30 Local (14:00 GMT)
Match Venue: MA Chidambaram, Chennai
Pro-Tip
Taking the last two matches in Chennai into consideration, it has been a two-faced pitch with the oddball keeping low, sometimes high. Pacers relying on swing have struggled as there is no swing on offer. Batsmen have generally found it tough to play spinners who bowl quicker and often fall prey to them.
Head to Head
Matches Played: 27, KKR: 6, MI: 21
Weather Conditions
Ideal conditions for cricket as clear skies are expected throughout the course of the day. With temperatures expected to be hovering around 28 - 34 degrees celsius and humidity at its peak is likely to touch the 66% mark.
Pitch
As the first couple of games have shown there is enough purchase for both batsman and bowlers. Spinners who bowl much quicker through the air have found much success rather than traditional speeds. With something available for the pacers also, the batsman has to take time to adjust to the pace of the pitch to score big. With a chase of dew coming into play, teams might prefer chasing.
Team News
With all players available for selection, Kolkata Knightriders will be happy they have their entire roster to choose from. Their first match saw Nitish Rana open the innings to great success again and an adequate bowling performance to elk out the victory. The management will be hoping Eoin Morgan and Andre Russell can produce the runs as the Kingriders were found wanting as soon as the top order departed.
After the completion of his quarantine period, Quinton de Kock would be available for selection in this match. Although Chris Lynn had a fine explosive performance with the bat in the first match, making it a conundrum for the management to continue with the Australian batsman or bring back the usual pair of Quinton de Kock and Rohit Sharma who has bought them much success. With the inclusion of Marco Jansen proving sturdy, the rest of the selections seem much settled.
Probable Playing XI
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR): Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan (C) Dinesh Karthik, Andre Russell, Shakib Al Hassan, Pat Cummins, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy, Harbajan Singh
Mumbai Indians (MI): Rohit Sharma, Chris Lynn/Quinton de Kock, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Trent Boult, Rahul Chahar, Marco Jansen, Jasprit Bumrah
Must-Picks
Jasprit Bumrah has had rare off games and continued his mastery picking wickets and being stringent with runs. Rahul Tripathi also looks in great touch showing off his explosive batting, with Nitish Rana and Suryakumar Yadav also being other good choices.
KKR vs MI Fantasy team
Captain and Vice-Captain Picks
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