Match date: 28th Apr 2016
Match timings: 20:00 hrs IST
The odds are in favor of Kolkata Knight Riders as they square off against defending champions Mumbai Indians, experiencing a campaign that is oscillating between high and low, in a potentially exciting Indian Premier League contest in Mumbai on Thursday.
KKR and MI are the two teams that have clinched the honors alternately in the glamorous T20 league over the last four editions. With the form shown thus far in the tournament by the two outfits, the match at the Wankhede Stadium promises to be an engaging battle between two top-notch sides.
The Knight Riders have travelled well this season and have also been led brilliantly by their opener Gautam Gambhir who has been the fulcrum of the batting, aggregating 237 runs from five games.
MI, at the other end of the spectrum, have had a mixed bag of results so far, wins coming in between losses and are going into the game with their confidence restored following a 25-run victory over Kings XI Punjab at Mohali on Monday.
The win over Punjab, their second in the last three outings, lifted them to the fifth spot, but there's still a long way to go before they can seal a spot in the play-offs. In batting, MI have relied mostly on Rohit and Ambati Rayudu (217 runs), with the occasional blasts from Kieron Pollard and Jos Buttler.
KKR have already lost the services for the remainder of the season of Australian pace bowler John Hastings due to an ankle injury, according to Cricket Australia. The fast bowler, who has now been ruled out of the subsequent Australian tour to West Indies too, played in KKR's first two games on April 10 and 13 and has not been part of the playing XI since then.
MI have a superb 17-5 all-time win-loss record against KKR, their last loss having come in their opening game of the last season at Eden Gardens before they turned around the fortunes and raced to the title.
Prediction: Kolkata Knight Riders to win
Mumbai Indians Squad:
Corey Anderson, Jasprit Bumrah, Jos Buttler, Unmukt Chand, Marchant de Lange, Shreyas Gopal, Harbhajan Singh, Kishore Kamath, Siddhesh Lad, Lasith Malinga, Mitchell McClenaghan, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Parthiv Patel, Kieron Pollard, Deepak Punia, Nitish Rana, Ambati Rayudu, Jitesh Sharma, Rohit Sharma, Lendl Simmons, Nathu Singh, Tim Southee, Jagadeesha Suchith, Vinay Kumar, Akshay Wakhare, Martin Guptill
Kolkata Knight Riders Squad:
Piyush Chawla, Gautam Gambhir, John Hastings, Brad Hogg, Jason Holder, Sheldon Jackson, Kuldeep Yadav, Chris Lynn, Manan Sharma, Morne Morkel, Colin Munro, Sunil Narine, Manish Pandey, Yusuf Pathan, Ankit Rajpoot, Andre Russell, Rajagopal Sathish, Shakib Al Hasan, Jaydev Unadkat, Robin Uthappa, Suryakumar Yadav, Umesh Yadav
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