What

The Mumbai Indians will come up against the Kolkata Knight Riders for the first time in VIVO IPL 2018 in Match 37.

With 3 wins from 9 matches, the defending champions are barely alive in the competition. In their most recent outing, they humbled Kings XI Punjab in Mohali. Barring an expensive last over in their bowling innings, MI had the perfect match; they restricted the hosts to 174-6 on a small ground in Indore and then chased down the runs with an over to spare.

KKR are sitting in the top half of the table with five wins from nine outings. It has been a start-stop kind of a season so far, and the two-time champions will look at stretching their two-match winning streak further. In their last two matches, KKR have chased down 176 against RCB and 178 against the Chennai Super Kings.

When

6 May 2018, 1600Hrs (IST)

Where

Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai

Impact Batsmen

The two most influential batsmen in the MI ranks are Suryakumar Yadav and Rohit Sharma. Yadav has settled into his new role as opener and has consistently made runs at the top; MI’s top run-getter at this point, Yadav will face a new challenge – he will up against several of his former teammates and it will be interesting to see how he fares in this challenge. When the MI captain Rohit Sharma scores runs, the team wins; to illustrate, he averages 45.37 in MI wins in the IPL, and a disappointing 20.10 in MI defeats. Despite batting in a variety of positions – even at number five in the previous match – Rohit is MI’s second-highest run-getter; that further illustrates he is one of the pillars of this team.

Every time Sunil Narine has lasted more than ten balls this season, he has ensured KKR have realised quick runs from at least his end; in the four innings he has lasted more than 10 balls, he has scored 144 runs at a strike-rate of 173.49. Importantly, KKR have gone on to win all those four matches.

Among others, Shubman Gill looked good in his innings of 57* against CSK; the teenager played some impressive strokes and looked at ease batting at number four. Dinesh Karthik is another important cog for KKR; batting in the middle order, and despite not scoring a half-century this season, the KKR skipper is the team’s top run-getter.

Impact Bowlers

In a format where runs are the essence, Jasprit Bumrah has been outstanding with the ball; the pacer has an economy of 6.75 this season. The pacer was brilliant in his team’s last match in Indore, returning figures of 4-0-19-1. MI will need him to carry that form forward and hope the rest of the cast can support him well.

KKR will look towards Sunil Narine, given his impressive record against MI, and in particular his success against the MI captain Rohit Sharma. The Trinidadian is KKR’s leading wicket-taker and has already won two Man of the Match awards – one of them in the previous match against CSK.

Team Head to Head

Overall: Matches – 21, Mumbai Indians won – 16, Kolkata Knight Riders won – 5

At the Wankhede Stadium: Matches – 7, Mumbai Indians won – 6, Kolkata Knight Riders won – 1

Trivia

Among all the teams in the IPL, the Mumbai Indians have the best record against the Kolkata Knight Riders.

KKR have an impressive record in run-chases this season; while they have a 1-3 win-loss record batting first, they have a 4-1 win-loss record in run-chases.

 Rohit Sharma has scored more runs against the Kolkata Knight Riders than against any other IPL opponent; he scored his only IPL hundred against KKR too – 109* in 2012.

Rohit Sharma has been dismissed by Sunil Narine on five occasions. His record against the Trinidadian reads: Runs scored – 87, Balls faced – 83, Strike Rate – 104.81, Dismissals – 5.

What Next

These teams will come up against each other for the second time in four days – when they meet at the Eden Gardens on May 9.