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Defending Premier League champions will take on the two-time winners in Match 34 of the current edition of the tournament in Abu Dhabi on September 2
MI made a disappointing resumption to their campaign in the tournament on Sunday, going down by 20 runs against the Chennai Super Kings in Dubai. Rohit Sharma’s men lost to their longstanding arch-rivals despite beginning impressively with the first half. The outcome of the match did little to remove the notoriously achieved tag of slow-starters against MI’s name.
On Monday, the Riders had an inspiring return to the field when they pulled off a resounding win over Royal Challengers Bangalore in Abu Dhabi. Sitting in the bottom half of the points table, KKR were being considered second-favourites against RCB on the ascent. But what followed left everyone shocked as they bundled out the opposition for a score of just 92 and clinched a comfortable nine-wicket win.
Key Players
Rohit Sharma is expected to make a comeback to the playing XI after missing the CSK encounter due to an injury. The side missed the stability that their captain provides to their batting unit as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals in their run-chase in Dubai. Rohit has faced question marks on his productivity as a batsman in IPL at times but the right-hander was easily the most solid-looking MI batsman during the Indian leg.
Rohit scored 250 runs at an average of 35.71 and strike-rate of 128.20 before the IPL 2021 was suspended due to the Covid-19 outbreak. He is heading into the UAE leg after showing stellar form during India’s Test tour of the UK.
Suryakumar Yadav has had an interesting IPL this year. The freeflowing middle-order batsman is evidently in very strong form and a rhythm at the crease. But at times, he has bordered on the line of excessively adventurous in his strokeplay. Suryakumar was out caught for 3 in the match against CSK after trying to play a risky shot over the in-field. He has now made 176 runs from his eight innings of the IPL 2021 at a strike-rate of 138.58 but with an average of only 22.
Jasprit Bumrah is one of the biggest keys to success for MI. When Bumrah is firing, MI are winning. The ace quick made a decent start to the match against CSK but then had a rare failure in the end-overs where opposition batsman Ruturaj Gaikwad out-thought him with his execution of plans and stroke-making. Bumrah took two wickets on the night but gave away 33 runs off his 4 overs. Overall in this IPL, Bumrah has taken eight wickets from as many games with an economy rate of 7.25.
Varun Chakravarthy was outstanding for KKR in the last game against RCB. The incisive right-arm spinner, whose mystery is yet to be fully resolved by the oppositions, was in his element in Abu Dhabi and took three wickets for just 13 runs off his four overs. Chakravarthy has now picked up 10 wickets from his eight outings of the IPL 2021 while going for 7.25 runs per over.
Andre Russell also made an impact against RCB as he combined beautifully with Chakravarthy and ran through the opposition middle-order, including the prized scalp of AB de Villiers for a first-ball duck. The all-rounder showed that, if not with the bat, he can shine whenever required with the ball for KKR. Russell now has 10 wickets from his eight games of the IPL 2021, to go with 163 runs at a strike-rate of 155.23.
Prediction
Results in their respective opening games of the UAE leg have made this MI-KKR encounter that much more interesting. While KKR gave themselves a genuine lift-me-up with the victory against RCB, MI now find themselves under slight pressure to retain their mojo and reinforce why they are still the tournament favourites.
KKR are languishing at the sixth position in the points table with three wins from eight matches. Importantly, they have greater confidence behind them after their performance in the last match.
Though still fourth in the standings with four wins and as many losses, MI will be wary of another slip-up at this stage of the tournament, knowing that they wouldn’t want to be in a situation where they need to win all their remaining games.
But despite the contrasting fortunes in their last match, MI are still the stronger of the two sides in all departments of the game and should be able to get back to winning ways.
