MUMBAI VS KOLKATA

BANGALORE@8PM

KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS WOULD BE EAGER TO AVENGE THEIR TWIN DEFEATS IN THE LEAGUE STAGE WHEN THEY FACE OLD FOES MUMBAI INDIANS IN THE IPL QUALIFIER 2 ON FRIDAY

KKR HAVE an abysmal 5-15 head-to-head record against Mumbai Indians, who notched up twin victories over their rivals in the league stage of the tournament this year

IN FACT, Mumbai had pulled off their first win of the IPL season against KKR at the Wankhede last month when they beat them by four wickets with just one ball to spare

MUMBAI ONCE again got the better of KKR when they handed them a nine-run defeat in their last league match at Eden Gardens

MUMBAI ARE coming into the match after a 20-run defeat against Rising Pune Supergiant, while KKR defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad by seven wickets (Duckworth-Lewis) in a rain-truncated Eliminator on Wednesday night.

BOTH MUMBAI and KKR have won the IPL trophy twice in the last nine editions and a win will take them to the final against Supergiant to be played in Hyderabad on Sunday

MUMBAI’S BATTING has been remarkable this season with openers Lendl Simmons and Parthiv Patel giving them good starts and skipper Rohit Sharma, Ambati Rayudu and Kieron Pollard (pic) firing in unison

WITH 10 victories in the league stage, table-toppers MI have been in rampaging form and they would like to forget their defeat against Pune and rise to the big occasion. In bowling, Mumbai may continue to open their attack with Sri Lankan Lasith Malinga & Kiwi Mitchell McClenaghan

KKR WOULD hope Lynn, who just scored six in the last match, comes to the party. Lynn had scored a quick-fire 50 off just 21 balls against Gujarat Lions on his return at Chinnaswamy after recovering from an injury

SUNIL NARINE'S pyrotechnics as a pinchhitter have helped KKR's cause. He had blasted 50 off just 15 balls against Bangalore to equal the record for the fastest fifty in IPL

AMONG OTHERS, KKR also boasts of Manish Pandey and Robin Uthappa, who have scored 396 and 387 runs respectively

GAMBHIR, WHO is placed in the second spot in the ‘most runs’ list with 486 runs, will hope to lead from the front. He was in red-hot form early in the season but seemed a tad off-colour in the business end