Kolkata Knight Riders have got back to life after a crushing win against a confident Royal Challengers Bangalore on the 20th of September. On Sunday, meanwhile, Mumbai Indians were defeated by Chennai Super Kings for the first time since the inaugural match of IPL 2020.
Defending champions, Mumbai Indians will look to beat KKR to better their chances while KKR will look to break into the top-4 of the points table with a win.
In their last encounter with each other, Mumbai Indians emerged victorious by 10 runs in tremendous fashion despite Andre Russell’s 5-wicket haul in that match.
Kolkata Knight Riders: - KKR have unearthed a new star in Venkatesh Iyer, who represents Madhya Pradesh in domestic cricket. He slammed 41 runs off 28 balls with 7 fours and a six against RCB on 20th September. His playing style is aggressive and has muscle power too, because of which he can tonk the ball without much effort. His stroke-play would benefit KKR on the big ground of Abu Dhabi. Being tall-heighted, he also has the potential to handle the pace of left-arm, Trent Boult really well. If he manages to bat well against Jasprit Bumrah and in-form leg-spinner Rahul Chahar, then he will be the one to watch out from KKR camp.
Shubman Gill is back after an injury and back to form as well! He scored 48 runs off 34 balls against RCB and would look to maintain his consistency against Mumbai Indians too. Andre Russell can be trusted to bowl in the death overs. He took 3/9 in 3 overs against RCB, including AB de Villiers who was knocked over for a golden duck in the last match! Varun Chakravarthy has been in great form as he accounted for 3/13 in the last match and justified his selection for the upcoming World T20.
Mumbai Indians: - MI have some issues to fix. Their left-arm spinner Krunal Pandya leaked 27 runs in 2 overs in the last match against CSK. A rookie batsman like Ruturaj Gaikwad targeted him handsomely and this has mainly been the weak link in their bowling line-up. The bigger boundaries at Abu Dhabi might help bowlers control the game should they remove big-hitters like Shubman Gill, Venkatesh Iyer and Andre Russell early.
Ishan Kishan’s form with the bat is a major concern for the MI camp as he has been playing at a strike rate of below 100 in the last few IPL games. But given his selection for the upcoming World T20, the MI camp would like to keep faith in him. Kieron Pollard’s recent form with the bat is also a concern, having failed to bat well in recently concluded T20I series against Australia and Pakistan.
Venue and Time: - Abu Dhabi International Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi at 19:30 IST on 23 September 2021.
Live Streaming: - Star Sports and Disney + Hotstar VIP, Super & Premium Accounts will be streaming the Match 34 of Vivo IPL between MI and KKR.
Expected Playing XI: -
Kolkata Knight Riders: Shubman Gill, Venkatesh Iyer, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana, Eoin Morgan (capt), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Lockie Ferguson, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy.
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (capt), Quinton de Kock (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya/Saurabh Tiwary, Krunal Pandya, Adam Milne, Rahul Chahar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah.
Stats: -
- MI and KKR played 28 matches against each other in IPL out of which MI won 22 and KKR won just 6 matches. This face-off has been one of the most uneven matched win-loss records in the history of IPL.
- Despite having some of the best death-overs batsmen in the game, Mumbai (8.62) and the Knight Riders (9.02) have the worst and third-worst scoring rates in overs 17-20 this season, respectively, with Sunrisers Hyderabad (8.69 before their match against the Delhi Capitals) in between.
- Shubman Gill will appear in his 50th IPL match.
- Rohit Sharma can become the first batsman in the IPL to score 1000 runs against a single opponent if he plays and scores 18. He has scored 982 runs against the Knight Riders with an average of 46.76 and a strike rate of 133.06.
Updates:
- Rohit Sharma, who was rested in the last match against CSK, is set to lead Mumbai in this match.
- Hardik Pandya might not feature again for the 2nd consecutive game in the 2nd leg of IPL 2021 owing to injury.
Pitch Report: -
The pitch at Abu Dhabi stadium is hard and the weather will be hot, though the cool breeze may float towards the stadium late in the night due to the stadium being in close proximity to desert. This will also reduce the dew factor and chasing the target might be a preference for the team winning the toss.
Dream XI Fantasy team: -
Quinton de Kock, Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Nitish Rana, Shubman Gill, Andre Russell (vc), Venkatesh Iyer, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy
