Following a crushing nine-wicket loss at the hands of debutants Rising Pune Supergiants, defending champions Mumbai Indians will be looking to bounce back against a strong and upbeat Kolkata Knight Riders outfit when they lock horns against each other on Wednesday for match 5 of the VIVO IPL 2016.
While both the opening encounters for either teams ended as a lopsided contest, Kolkata will be buoyed by the brand of cricket that they showcased to outclass a severely shaky Delhi Daredevils squad. Mumbai, on the other hand, will be looking to make amends from their dismal performance against the Rising Pune Supergiants, where they got outclassed in all departments to lose by a huge margin.
However, the defending champions will have to take the loss in their stride, knowing that they possess the ‘slow starters’ tag. The need to play a fearless brand of cricket will have to be at the back of their heads when they step onto the field against two-time IPL champions KKR.
Kolkata Knight Riders vs Mumbai Indians 2016 LIVE Streaming Details:
TV Channel: Sony ESPN, Sony ESPN HD, Sony Six, Sony Six HD, Sony Max
Online Stream: www.starsports.com, Hotstar App
Match Date: 13 April 2016, Wednesday
Match Timing: 20:00 IST, 14:30 GMT
Match Venue: Eden Gardens, Kolkata
Team News:
Kolkata Knight Riders Squad:
The KKR think-tank will be overjoyed by the return of mystery spinner Sunil Narine, who has returned to the fold after flying to the Caribbean for family reasons. His addition to the squad will add more steel to an already vicious Kolkata line-up, who cleaned up the Delhi Daredevils without much ado in their lung-opener.
Andre Russell demolished the top order with his pace and bounce to claim three wickets, while the wily spin duo of Brad Hogg and Piyush Chawla picked 5 wickets in their combined eight overs while running through the middle-order and the tail. Giving John Hastings the nod ahead of Morkel seemed like a masterstroke, as he gave away just 6 runs in his 2.4 overs while picking up two wickets.
With the trusted opening duo of Gautam Gambhir and Robin Uthappa delivering the goods yet again with a well stitched partnership of 69 in just under 10 overs and Manish Pandey providing finishing touches, it will be interesting to see if Narine’s inclusion means the omission of the big-hitting Colin Munro to form a spin trio, or the exclusion of either Hogg or Hastings.
Mumbai Indians squad :
After a morale-destroying opening match, the Mumbai Indians will have a whole lot of issues to deal with. After calling the coin right, Rohit Sharma opted to bat but was in for a shock. With just three of Mumbai’s batsmen crossing the single-digit score of which two are better known for their bowling (Vinay Kumar and Harbhajan Singh), the batting card did not have much to show, except for a 30 ball 45 cameo from Harbhajan Singh and a patient 22 from Ambati Rayudu.
If the batting was poor, the bowling was not of great standards either. In the absence of leading pacer Lasith Malinga, the Mumbai attack was smoked around by the Pune top-order with the only wicket falling to offie Harbhajan Singh. However, considering it was only their first match, MI are most likely to go in with the same squad, and if talent was anything to speak of, they will surely prove great competition to the Knights.
Teams (Predicted XI):
Kolkata Knight Riders Team
Gautam Gambhir (Captain), Robin Uthappa (wk), Manish Pandey, Colin Munro, Suryakumar Yadav, Yusuf Pathan, Andre Russell, John Hastings, Sunil Narine, Piyush Chawla, Umesh Yadav.
Mumbai Indians Team
Rohit Sharma (Captain), Lendl Simmons, Jos Buttler (wk), Ambati Rayudu, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Harbhajan Singh, Shreyas Gopal, Vinay Kumar, Mitchell McClenaghan, Jasprit Bumrah.
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