The Mumbai Indians will play the Kolkata Knight Riders in the 23rd match of the Indian Premier League at Buffalo Park in East London.
The venue has yet to host any T20I, but has hosted 19 ODIs, most recent of which was played in 2006. The only domestic T20 that was played on this ground in South Africa’s previous season had seen a low-scoring match won by the team batting second.
The previous match between these two teams, Mumbai (4/6 at Stan James to beat Kolkata again) and Kolkata, had seen Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya smash the living daylights out of the Knight Riders’ bowling. The duo had got to their respective half centuries and the Knight Riders had failed to get to even a 100.
After that game, both teams have lost one more match each, but Mumbai find themselves in a far better position than Kolkata with two wins and five points.
The silver lining out of their loss to the Kings XI Punjab when they failed to chase 120 was the batting of J.P. Duminy (9/2 at Sky Bet to be top Mumbai batsman), who got back into his own with a well compiled fifty. However, Tendulkar (5/2 at Bet 365 to top Mumbai batting) still remains the favourite, and is closely followed by Jayasuriya (3/1 at Bet 365), despite his poor run of form on the Protea pitches. I shall vouch for Jayasuriya to come good if the pitch has true bounce and carry, but if the top order does collapse, an Abhishek Nayar (10/1 at Bet 365) may not be too far from being the top Mumbai batsman.
Amongst the Knight Riders, Brendon McCullum (3/1 at Bet 365) has the same issues as Jayasuriya, to add to the captaincy woes as well. With a first-ball duck to his name against a part-time bowler in their tie against Bangalore, it cannot possibly get worse for the captain, and personally he could have just turned the corner. One may also see him push down the order with a possibility of Sourav Ganguly (9/2 at Sky Bet to be Kolkata batsman) or Morne wan Vyk (5/1 at Bet 365 to be top Kolkata batsman) to open the inning.
The difference between the two teams could be the bowling attack; something that Mumbai Indians can lay a claim to being one of the best in the tournament. Lasith Malinga (10/3 at Stan James to be most economic) is the proud owner of the purple cap – which means he has the highest number of wickets so far – and Zaheer Khan (9/2 at Stan James for being most economic) has begun to play his part well. My favourite to bowl the most economic spell is Harbhajan Singh (9/2 at Stan James), as spin seems to be the one aspect of the game which has yet to be sorted out by the opponents.
Tip:
Favourite Team: Mumbai Indians (4/6 at Stan James)
Top Mumbai batsman: Sachin Tendukar (5/2 at Bet 365)
Top Kolkata batsman: Sourav Ganguly (9/2 at Sky Bet)
Most economic bowler: Lasith Malinga (10/3 at Stan James)
