Two of IPL’s fiercest rivals, Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders will face off in Match 14 of IPL 2022 at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium. The rivalry between these two sides is nothing new to the IPL lovers since both these sides have given immense memorable cricketing encounters over the past several seasons whenever they’ve faced each other, be it in the group stages or the knockouts. Both the sides in the present season of the IPL however have been contrary to each other in terms of their performances so far.
While on one hand KKR made a winning start to their campaign and have already managed two wins out of their three matches, Mumbai Indians on the other hand are yet to win their first match and open their account in this IPL season. Thus their face-off tomorrow shall definitely be a worth watching one for every IPL lover be it a supporter of any of these two teams or even a supporter of neither.
KKR vs MI: Match Details
- Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians, Match 14, IPL 2022
- Venue: MCA Stadium, Pune
- Date & Time: April 6th, 7:30 PM
Kolkata Knight Riders: Analysis
Gameplan: The Knight riders so far have been fantastic in all three departments of the game during the first three matches they’ve played so far this season. The Shreyash Iyer lead side has shown a tremendous amount of dominance against several unforeseen situations and a majority of the players especially the newly drafted ones have lived up to their worth totally.
Thus considering their brilliant current run and such form of the players, the team management must surely be all smiles. What is a reason for greater happiness for then is the possibility of Pat Cummins joining the squad in tomorrow’s match which shall definitely boost the side’s confidence and make the squad look a lot more stronger than before altogether.
Probable Playing XI:- Ajinkya Rahane, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer (c), Nitish Rana, Sam Billings (wk), Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Tim Southee, Shivam Mavi, Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy.
Mumbai Indians: Analysis
Gameplan: The 5-time champions have once again had a really disappointing start to the tournament in contrast to many of their opponents. They have lost both their encounters so far this season and will be desperate to make a turnaround in their upcoming fixture against KKR.
Their batting has shown good signs on certain occasions but the sudden breakdown of the middle order midway during the innings has hurt them really had in both the games. The top order providing a good start hasn’t been of much use due to the middle order’s failure to capitalise on a good platform set up earlier.
The bowlers too have leaked away runs and also majorly lacked the wicket-taking ability so far which has been below par as compared to the previous seasons. Thus Mumbai will have a lot of questions to answer when they take the field in a stiff match against KKR tomorrow.
Probable Playing XI:- Rohit Sharma (c), Ishan Kishan (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Kieron Pollard, Tim David, Daniel Sams, Murugan Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Tymal Mills, Jaydev Unadkat.
KKR vs MI: Probable Top Performers
Probable best batsman of the match – Ishan Kishan
After his brilliant displays with the bat in both of the opening matches for Mumbai Indians, Ishan Kishan no doubt will be tipped by many including us to play another fantastic inning in tomorrow’s game vs KKR. The 24 year old has lived up to his worth by proving the team management’s decision to invest that huge amount in him during the mega auctions 100% correct.
He’s Mumbai’s top scorer so far and has notched up half centuries in both games thereby carrying the batting order more or less single-handedly. A bit of able assistance from the other end is all he needs to achieve some desirable results for his side in tomorrow’s game which he got to some extent from a young Tilak Verma in the last game.
However, the middle-order batsman failing to carry on with their job cost his side the game. Thus a certainty dependable Ishan Kishan is expectedly going to continue with his fine form tomorrow and play another wonderful innings.
Probable best bowler of the match – Umesh Yadav
At the moment when Umesh Yadav was included by the KKR side during the auctions , nobody would seriously have expected him to be this good right from the first match. His sheer brilliance with the ball has won him two man of the match awards in the two opening games of this season. No doubt the credit for the good performance of his side so far in this season must go to his brilliant spells at various phases of the innings which has kept the batsman on their to s for a major part of their stay on the crease.
His side would thus once again be banking on a classical bowling performance from him to derail the Mumbai Batting tomorrow thereby helping them win another priceless encounter against the rivals. Considering his rich vein of form at the moment we feel that he might be the best bowler in tomorrow’s game.
KKR vs MI: Head to head stats
The Mumbai Indians have a massive lead over the Kolkata Knight Riders in the head to head record of the matches played so far between these two teams. Mumbai Indians have emerged victorious in 22, of the 29 matches played so far while KKR have just won on 7 occasions.
In spite of it being a one sided competition so far between these two sides in the overall history of the IPL, the present situation seems pretty much evenly posted considering the present situations of both the sides. It definitely is going to be a game full of suspense tomorrow when both these sides meet each other hoping to add another famous chapter to their historic rivalry.
KKR vs MI: Winning Prediction
Possible winner of tomorrow’s match – Mumbai Indians
Considering the highly unpredictable maturity of both these sides, their records in the past , their present batting, bowling strengths and their current form followed by a dozen other aspects related to the teams, we’ve felt that Mumbai Indians might take everyone by surprise and break their jinx this season by edging an in form KKR side in a heart enthralling intense encounters l tomorrow. In spite of both the sides being equally equipped with batting and bowling brilliance and though KKR seems to be a better team in terms of the players’ form, we feel that the sheer ability of Mumbai Indians to step up to the occasions against their rivals in highly anticipated games in the past may see them through against a strong looking KKR side in tomorrow’s match. It remains to be seen as to who makes it a step forward in this fierce rivalry after tomorrow’s match.
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