Series: Indian Premier League, 2016 Venue: Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam Date & Time: May 13, 08:00 PM LOCAL
Mumbai seeks to maintain momentum against Punjab
After being crushed by Hyderabad, Mumbai Indians got their act together to get the better of Royal Challengers Bangalore by six wickets.
Having regrouped quickly after suffering an 85-run
drubbing, Mumbai Indians will look to continue their winning ways when
they lock horns with bottom-placed Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier
League in Visakhapatnam on Friday.
After being
crushed by Sunrisers Hyderabad, defending champions Mumbai Indians got
their act together to get the better of Royal Challengers Bangalore by
six wickets on Wednesday.
Mumbai, led by star batsman
Rohit Sharma, are placed fourth in the points table with six victories
and five defeats from 11 appearances. They have so far earned 12 points,
and would seek to maintain the momentum going into their next game at
the Dr. YS Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, their ‘home’
ground.
Struggling at the bottom of the eight-team
table, Kings XI Punjab is already out of reckoning for a play-offs
berth, having lost seven of their 10 matches.
The visitors are not likely to find the going easy against the formidable Mumbai outfit.
Rohit
has led the team from the front and is Mumbai’s top-scorer overall. On
most occasions, he has delivered when his team has needed.
Knocked
out for a paltry 92 by Sunrisers Hyderabad, Mumbai Indian batsmen as
well as the bowlers seemed determined to erase that humiliation against
RCB.
After Mumbai Indian’s bowlers allowed the
batting-heavy RCB to score only 151 in front of their home crowd at the
comparatively smaller Chinnaswamy Stadium, their batsmen chased down the
target with plenty of wickets and balls to spare.
While
Rohit has been their guiding light with the bat, the presence of Ambati
Rayudu, big-hitting Kieron Pollard and Jos Buttler has also added depth
to MI’s batting line-up.
On and off, wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel has done his bit in front of the stumps.
Mitchell
McClenaghan and Tim Southee were responsible for the early blows in
their last match against Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Spinner
Harbhajan Singh is an experienced campaigner, and Rohit also has
options in rookie medium pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya,
besides Pollard.
As far as Kings XI Punjab is
concerned, the script has so far remained the same. They are coming off a
heartbreaking one-run loss to Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Handed
captaincy midway into the league, India’s Murali Vijay has been trying
his best to show the way, but without much support from the rest of the
crew.
Vijay top-scored with an accomplished 57-ball
89 while Marcus Stoinis blazed away towards the end, but the others
failed to show up as KXIP lost again.
The form of
David Miller and Glenn Maxwell has been a cause for concern. The
Australian missed out on the last match, with the team management
claiming that he was being rested.
As far as bowling
is concerned, the likes of Sandeep Sharma, Mohit Sharma, Axar Patel and
Stoinis will need to pull their socks up.
Teams:
Mumbai Indians:
Rohit Sharma (capt), Parthiv Patel, Hardik Pandya, Jos Buttler,
Mitchell McClenaghan, Ambati Rayudu, Kieron Pollard, Harbhajan Singh,
Jagadeesha Suchith, Tim Southee, Jasprit Bumrah, Shreyas Gopal, R Vinay
Kumar, Corey Anderson, Unmukht Chand, Marchant de Lange, Siddhesh Lad,
Kishore Kamath, Krunal Pandya, Deepak Punia, Nitish Rana, Jitesh Sharma,
Nathu Singh, Akshay Wakhare, Martin Guptill.
Kings XI Punjab:
Murali Vijay (capt), Hashim Amla, Marcus Stoinis, Glenn Maxwell,
Gurkeerat Singh, David Miller, Axar Patel, Wriddhiman Saha, Mohit
Sharma, KC Cariappa, Sandeep Sharma, Anureet Singh, Armaan Jaffer, Kyle
Abbott, Farhaan Behardien, Rishi Dhawan, Mitchell Johnson, Nikhil Naik,
Manan Vohra, Pradeep Sahu, Swapnil Singh, Shradul Thakur.
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