Confident Knight Riders to challenge Mumbai Indians
mumbai — Mumbai Indians would not want to read too much into their good track record against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) when the two sides lock horns in a Indian Premier League (IPL) game at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday.
KKR cantered to a 10-wicket win against Gujarat Lions on Friday night with Gautam Gambhir (76 not out) and Chris Lynn (93 not out) taking their rivals bowlers to the cleaners.
Chasing 184 to win, KKR reached the target with 31 balls to spare, underlining their title credentials from the word go.
Mumbai, on the other hand, failed to overcome the challenge from Rising Pune Supergiant in their opening game, losing by seven wickets as Pune skipper Steve Smith stamped his class with a brilliant unbeaten 84 to guide his team to victory.
In the head to head count, Mumbai clearly have the upper hand with 13 wins in 18 ties to KKR’s five. At the Wankhede, KKR have won just once, when they prevailed by 32 runs in 2012.
Mumbai would be desperate to get back the services of Sri Lanka pacer Lasith Malinga who took a hat-trick in the second T20 against Bangladesh recently, his first in the shortest format of the game.
Malinga, who is the all-time highest wicket taker in IPL with 143 scalps to his name, has three hat-tricks in one-day internationals. With Tim Southee, Hardik Pandya, Mitchell McClenaghan and Jasprit Bumrah trying hard in the last game to get more wickets — Mumbai could just send three of the Pune batsmen in the dressing room -- Malinga’s addition would surely add teeth to their bowling line-up.
KKR, according to skipper Gambhir, fared well in their bowling department by restricting a top-heavy batting of Gujarat to 183 on a wicket that offered little assistance. Kuldeep Yadav was the pick of the bowlers, taking two wickets and conceding just 25 runs in his four overs. But it was KKR’s batting that left everyone talking. Not losing a wicket and clobbering the Gujarat bowlers with disdain, Lynn and Gambhir showed tremendous form, one that will give them a lot of confidence going into the next game. The pair broke IPL’s record of highest first wicket partnership previously held by Chris Gayle and Tillakaratne Dilshan (167) for Royal Challengers Bangalore against Pune Warriors.
Batting first in their opening game, Mumbai did not have any batsman getting past 40 runs with England opener Jos Buttler the highest scorer for the team with 38.