The IPL 2021 progresses with its 5th match of the campaign to be held on Tuesday. Kolkata Knight Riders will face Mumbai Indians in M.A Chidambaram Stadium. The match begins at 7:30 pm Indian Standard Time. Both of these teams have played their opening IPL matches a few days earlier. Although Kolkata Knight Riders were able to come through with a comfortable win against Sunrisers Hyderabad, Rohit Sharma and his team struggled against Royal Challengers Bangalore. The game will not have any home advantages on either side and is set to be hosted in neutral venues without the fans.
Match Preview
M.A Chidambaram Stadium also known as the Chepauk is a dry and hard pitch that continually keeps breaking as the match progresses. Due to its hardness, the pitch becomes an ideal batting paradise for the teams. It tests the patience of the spinners as it takes a lot of time for the ball to turn when the pitch has finally cracked. The IPL matches hosted here make it an absolute high-intensity game with both teams trying to hit it out of the park to score a big total. The shorter boundaries will be a threat for the bowlers as well as the fielders need to be more agile and careful on the line. All in all, Chepauk suits the batting side and the hopes of chasing a big total is not an improbable idea for the team batting second.
Kolkata Knight Riders Team News
Kolkata won their maiden match of the IPL 2021. Although their chances of winning look grim during the middle overs, Sunrisers Hyderabad could not make the most out of it.
Nitish Rana opened alongside Subhman Gill and went on to score 80 runs in 56 balls. A spectacular inning from this left-handed batsman gave KKR a morale boost. Rahul Tripathi who showed how good he was with the bat also scored a half-century. The batting lineup which faltered very badly last season has shown proper strength and grip in their game. Their former captain Dinesh Karthick whose regular poor performances proved fatal for their team smashed 22 runs in 9 balls and give Hyderabad a defendable total.
They look like serious title contenders and the teams facing them need to be vigilant going against this side.
Predicted Eleven: Varun Chakravarthy, Nitish Rana, Shubman Gill, Eoin Morgan (Captain)(Overseas), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Pat Cummins(Overseas), Andre Russell(Overseas), Harbhajan Singh, Rahul Tripathi, Prasidh Krishna, Shakib Al Hasan(Overseas),.
Mumbai Indians Team News
Rohit Sharma and his team sit in sixth place on the points table after losing another opening game of the campaign. They are yet to win an opener since IPL 2012. Although it has proved to be a lucky charm for them, this year that might not be the case.
Mumbai faltered in their first match and struggled to keep up against RCB’s bowling. After Chris Lynn and Yadav’s dismissal, their intent was seen missing. Rohit Sharma would require his team to take the onus if they plan to defeat KKR. A lack of motivation was what could be summarised from Mumbai’s innings. Mumbai who has a strong set of all-rounders to pull the team up from a tight situation and get a decent total was not up to the mark against RCB.
Mumbai would possibly go with an unchanged eleven against Kolkata.
Predicted Eleven: Kieron Pollard(Overseas), Suryakumar Yadav, Chris Lynn(Overseas), Ishan Kishan (wk), Rahul Chahar, Hardik Pandya, Marco Jansen(Overseas), Krunal Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah Rohit Sharma (Captain).
Key Stats
Mumbai Indians are the undisputed winner of this tie. Their head-to-head statistics speak in favor of the men-in-blue as they have won this clash 21 times out of 27 games they have faced KKR in. KKR and Mumbai have both registered 200 plus runs against each other. One could say this is Andre Russell’s favorite fixture to score in. The KKR all-rounder loves to smash big against Mumba. In 2019 Russell scored 80 runs in just 40 balls and had the entire stadium roar as they were in absolute awe of how phenomenal the West Indian could be. Russell will be a detrimental threat to the Indians, given his past record.
Mumbai Indians have won both the fixtures last year and have been clear dominators of the game. The high-scoring pitch gives an advantage to both sides with an average total of 170 runs, and it will be interesting to see how both teams cash in their chances as they lay their eyes on the trophy.
Conclusion
It will be interesting to see how the game progresses when these two robust sides of the game face each other.
