Fifth Match of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2021) will see Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) take on defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Tuesday.
Mumbai Indians have a great record against the Kolkata Knight Riders, with the last match between the two sides ending in a comfortable eight-wicket win for the current IPL champions. However, Kolkata Knight Riders look a more relaxed unit this time. In what has become an unwanted trend, MI lost the opening game of the IPL season against the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). Despite amassing a decent total on a tricky wicket, superb cameos from AB de Villiers and Glenn Maxwell took RCB over the line. First took a look on Pitch Report,
Pitch Report:
The surface here in Chennai has not been all about the bowlers. While the surface is certainly a tacky one, the likes of Nitish Rana and AB de Villiers have proved that there are runs in it as well. Overall, anything around 175 should be a good total on this ground.
Predicted Playing XIs for KKR vs MI:
Kolkata Knight Riders:
Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan (C), Shakib Al Hasan, Andre Russell, Dinesh Karthik (WK), Pat Cummins, Varun Chakravarthy, Harbhajan Singh, Prasidh Krishna
Mumbai Indians:
Rohit Sharma (C), Chris Lynn/Quinton de Kock, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan(WK), Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Marco Jansen, Rahul Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult.
Best Choice For Wicketkeepers:
Ishan Kishan’s 28 from just 19 deliveries provided his team with the acceleration they needed at that point of the innings against Bangalore. He has scored 25+ runs in 4 of his last 5 T20 games.
Best Choice For Batsmen:
Nitish Rana was promoted to open the innings for KKR in the last match and the southpaw made full use of the opportunity. He has been in great form recently, as in his last 5 T20 games, he has scored 60+ runs thrice.
Shubman Gill played a rash slog-sweep against Rashid Khan to be castled in rather embarrassing fashion, but he was deprived of the strike and wanted to get in on the action. Poor dismissal aside, the youngster was in stellar nick, even lofting a gorgeous straight six off the bowling of T Natarajan.
Best Choice For All-Rounders:
At the time Andre Russell came to bat in the last match, accelerating from ball number 1 was the only option. Hence, the fact that he got out for only 5 runs should not have any effect on his appeal. He also bowled well at the death in the last match and got the wicket of Vijay Shankar.
Hardik Pandya had a below-par game against Royal Challengers Bangalore, but he played well in the ODI and T20I series against England. In his last game before IPL, which was an ODI, he scored 44-ball 64.
Best Choice For Bowlers:
Jasprit Bumrah kept Mumbai Indians in the game till the very end in the last match by dismissing Virat Kohli and Dan Christian. He has picked up 12 wickets in his last 5 IPL games.
Pat Cummins picked up only one wicket in the last game, but it was the highly important wicket of Jonny Bairstow. He also had the best economy rate from the KKR bowlers.
Best Choice For Captain and Vice-Captain:
Nitish Rana was promoted to open the innings for KKR in the last match and the southpaw made full use of the opportunity. He has been in great form recently, as in his last 5 T20 games, he has scored 60+ runs thrice. He scored 87 runs in 61 balls in this season (IPL-2021) and led his team to the victory. So, he could be the best choice for the Captain.
Shubman Gill played a rash slog-sweep against Rashid Khan to be castled in rather embarrassing fashion, but he was deprived of the strike and wanted to get in on the action. Poor dismissal aside, the youngster was in stellar nick, even lofting a gorgeous straight six off the bowling of T Natarajan. So, he could be the best choice for the Vice-Captain.
Best Suggested Playing XI for KKR vs MI Dream 11 Cricket:
Ishan Kishan (WK), Rohit Sharma, Nitish Rana (C), Suryakumar Yadav, Shubman Gill (VC), Shakib Al Hasan, Andre Russell, Hardik Pandya, Pat Cummins, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult