Two-Two times Indian Premier League champions, Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians are set to take on each other in the fifth match of 2016 edition on 13 April at Eden Gardens. Mumbai team coming into this by losing opening game of tournament against Pune Supergiants whereas Kolkata defeated Delhi Daredevils in the first match of Vivo IPL 2016.
Preview
This is going to be a crunch game for title defending champion Rohit Sharma & company as they were completely thrashed by Supergiants other night. Mumbai Indians need a good start on this Kolkata’s pitch as they lost 5 wickets in the first six overs against Pune team. So they need to play with good batting combination and need to score enough runs to give their bowlers a chance to defend it.
Rohit Sharma can score big runs on this ground as this is the venue he likes most as a batsman. Ball comes nicely on the bat which is quite favorable for Rohit. Lendl Simmons also needs to play good inning if MI wants to win the game as KKR is having very strong batting line-up. Ambati Rayudu, Hardik Pandya, Parthiv Patel and Kieron Pollard must score runs in the middle overs for team to survive.
On the other hand, Kolkata Knight Riders will be playing like champions as they defeated Delhi Daredevils quite comprehensively. Bowling and batting, both departments were terrific in the last game. First KKR restricted DD on just 98 runs score and then chased it easily for the loss of 1 wicket. Bur team Kolkata must aware of title defending champions as they are known to comeback from behind.
In the last edition of IPL, they lost first 5 starting matches in the competition but end the season being winner of it. So Gautam Gambhir & Co needs to play well and keep focused.
Squads
Kolkata Knight Riders
Gautam Gambhir (Captain), Colin Munro, Manan Ajay Sharma, Sunil Narine, Rajagopal Sathish, Shakib Al Hasan, Jason Holder, Ankit Singh Rajpoot, Yusuf Pathan, Robin Uthappa, Sheldon Jackson, Piyush Chawla, John Hastings, Morne Morkel, Suryakumaar Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Manish Pandey, Chris Lynn, Kuldeep Singh Yadav, Andre Russell, Jaydev Unadkat, Brad Hogg.
Mumbai Indians
Rohit Sharma (Captain), Ambati Rayudu, Harbhajan Singh, Corey Anderson, Mitchell McClenaghan, Unmukt Chand, Siddhesh Dinesh Lad, Nathu Singh, Jos Buttler, Hardik Pandya, Deepak Punia, Jasprit Bumrah, Jitesh Sharma, Lasith Malinga, Parthiv Patel, Krunal Pandya, Vinay Kumar, Marchant de Lange, J Suchitch, Kishore Pramod Kamath, Shreyas Gopal, Lendl Simmons, Nitish Rana, Akshay Wakhare, Kieron Pollard, Tim Southee.
See more: Points table of IPL 2016
Predictions
Kolkata Knight Riders are favorites to win this fifth game of Indian Premier League 2016 season and they have got 55 percent winning chances over Mumbai Indians.