IPL match preview: Mumbai Indians v Kolkata Knight Riders
The Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders have seven Indian Premier League titles between them, as the pursuit for another continues.
Suryakumar Yadav.Mumbai are the most successful team in the history of the tournament of the five titles, but finished in last position in 2022 and waited a while for their first win this campaign. They're off the mark now, after beating Delhi recently, and can build on that.
Importantly, captain Rohit Sharma scored a half-century against the Capitals. When he's the one demanding the batsmen do better, he has to be delivering himself. There is major concern for Mumbai over Suryakumar Yadav, though. He has scored just 25 runs in his last seven innings in professional cricket, including four ducks.
The Knight Riders will go into this match on the back of a testing fixture against the Gujarat Titans. What Kolkata achieved in beating the defending champions provides a solid indicator of what could happen here and in their preceding fixture against the Sunrisers Hyderabad.
With the bat, Venkatesh Iyer could be key again. And with the ball, there is the ever-present threat of Sunil Narine. The West Indian spinner started the tournament slowly, but has since quickly slipped into a solid wicket-taking rhythm.
The Knight Riders have won three of their last five meetings with Mumbai. All three came consecutively across the 2021 and 2022 IPLs. Mumbai, indeed, have not beaten KKR in two years.
Tilak Varma has really impressed this season. His clean hitting against the Capitals was a particular spectacle and the Kolkata bowlers would do well not to bowl into his areas. The Mumbai seam attack has plenty of Australian influence at the moment, with Cameron Green, Riley Meredith and Jason Behrendorff included.
Again, plenty of responsibility will rest with KKR captain Nitish Rana. He's new to the formal leadership role in the absence of the injured Shreyas Iyer. Rana would dearly like to put in more big performances with the bat.
The Mumbai Indians should make it two in two here. They fought really hard to squeeze a win from the contest against Delhi and got it, deservedly so. They're not the kind of outfit to rest on their laurels.
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