IPL 6: Match 33 – KKR vs MI – Mumbai Indians Preview

Teams – KKR vs MI

Venue – Eden Gardens, Kolkata

Time – 8 pm IST

Mumbai Indians, the most high profile team in the IPL, sits at no. 6 on the table after almost one-third of the IPL has been completed. That in itself might not be too worrying as the nature of this format suggests teams can quickly gather momentum and find themselves in the top half of the table in space of couple of games. What will be extremely worrying is the fact that Mumbai Indians have lost two games with margins of 87 runs and 9 wickets. Mumbai Indians, in their six matches so far, have been extremely inconsistent as one quick glance at their record would suggest.

Form guide:

Mumbai Indians – LWWWLL

These stats will be difficult to digest for Ricky Ponting, the captain. His own form isn’t much to write home about either, as in the six matches he has played this season, he has the top score of 28 against RCB which is hardly anything to gloat about. Ricky Ponting once again will have to consider whether he fits into his team’s line-up at all and might do a Kumar Sangakkara, by dropping himself to give chance to players who are more accomplished in the shortest format of the game.

However, looking at what John Wright said a press conference ahead of the match, he seems to be barking the wrong tree;

“We are playing good cricket. We are getting there gradually. All we need is a win. A victory would put our campaign back on track.”

This quote clearly suggests that Mumbai Indians coach doesn’t think there is anything wrong with his team and his team is on track to achieve the first target of qualifying for the semifinal.

While most teams in the IPL are heavily dependent on foreigners to win them matches, Mumbai Indians are completely the opposite as the talented Rohit Sharma was in sublime touch along with Dinesh Karthik, who is MI’s highest run-getter this season,  are the two other important characters in the MI batting line-up. They both have been in tremendous form this season and Mumbai’s hopes this season will heavily rely on them.

Then there is an age old mystery of Kieron Pollard and his batting position in MI line-up, or to put it other way, how to maximize Pollard’s big hitting capacity. Even though Dwayne Smith failed in the previous match, MI would like to stick to him as Tendulkar-Ponting’s dream combination has completely failed this season and Smith can also double-up as a medium pacer.

The game has a nice little sub-plot to it as it overlaps with Sachin Tendulkar‘s 40th birthday. The Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) and MI have made several plans to celebrate the occasion, including a 40-pound chocolate cake supposedly made of cocoa from Ghana and Madagascar and his team will be hoping to gift him a win by a stellar on-field performance that does not spoil the celebrations later the night.

Players to watch out for:

Dinesh Karthik: He has been the saviour for MI on many occasions this season as the top order has crumbled far too often. Expect him to carry the MI middle-order and provide the likes of Kieron Pollard the freedom to do what they are lethal at.

Kieron Pollard: The big-hitting West Indian will be looking to emulate his fellow countrymen, Chris Gayle’s performance yesterday and if he gets going, then he is equally dangerous as the Jamaican himself was last evening.