IPL 2017 Player Battles: Top 4 player encounters to look for in the Mumbai Indians vs Kolkata Knight Riders match

#3 Piyush Chawla vs Jos Buttler

Buttler gave MI a good start at the top of the order

Mumbai sprung a surprise in their opening game when they sent Jos Buttler to open the batting along with Parthiv Patel ahead to Rohit Sharma. The move almost proved to be a masterstroke as he smashed the bowlers in the initial six overs of field restrictions by scoring 38 runs in just 19 balls. He was unlucky to be given out lbw to Tahir as the ball had hit the inside part of the bat.

In the last match against the Gujarat Lions, Piyush Chawla bowled in the powerplay for the Knight Riders and even scalped the wicket of Jason Roy in his second over. This gives the skipper and the team management of the Knight Riders enough flexibility to use Sunil Narine and Kuldeep Yadav in the middle overs to put the brakes on scoring rate.

The England batsman got out to the leg spinner in the last game and it will be interesting to see his tactics against Chawla. He likes the ball coming onto the bat in the power play and this change would surely make him think about his game plan. Chawla bowls a lot flatter in the initial overs and his variations will be the key to counter Buttler and his aggressive style of play.