What

The Mumbai Indians will look to build on their thrilling win over Royal Challengers Bangalore when they take on Kings XI Punjab in Match 9 of VIVO IPL 2019.

MI snatched victory from the jaws of defeat in Bengaluru on Thursday night. It took three brilliant performances to earn MI their first points of the season. First, Hardik Pandya’s cameo at the backend of the innings gave them a respectable sore to defend, then right at the fag end of RCB’s run-chase, Jasprit Bumrah and Lasith Malinga bowled two sensation overs to deny the hosts.

Kings XI Punjab were blown away by the Kolkata Knight Riders in their previous match. After conceding 218-4 – the highest total in IPL matches at the Eden Gardens, KXIP slipped early when they lost KL Rahul and Chris Gayle cheaply. Thereafter, they were playing catch-up all the time; despite half-centuries from Mayank Agarwal and David Miller, and a cameo from Mandeep Singh, KXIP still fell short by 28 runs.

KL Rahul was among the stand out batsmen in VIVO IPL 2018, but he’s endured some rough times on and off the field since. Rahul, who has made scores of 4 & 1 in his two innings this season, is a vital cog in KXIP’s plans and the team management will expect a significant performance from him sooner rather than later.

When

30 March 2019, 4PM IST

Where

IS Bindra Stadium, Mohali

Previous Match XIs:

Kings XI Punjab: KL Rahul, Chris Gayle, Mayank Agarwal, Sarfaraz Khan, David Miller, Mandeep Singh, R Ashwin, Varun Chakravarthy, Hardus Viljoen, Andrew Tye, Mohammed Shami.

Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Quinton de Kock, Suryakumar Yadav, Yuvraj Singh, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Mitchell McClenaghan, Mayank Markande, Lasith Malinga, Jasprit Bumrah.

Protagonists

If Chris Gayle’s name features on the team sheet, how can one look past him. The Jamaican is reinvigorated and appears hungry for runs. He also loves playing in Mohali, where he has one century and three half-centuries in six IPL innings.

MI have plenty of dangerous batsmen in their line-up, but the one batsman who can have the biggest impact on their fortunes is their captain. Rohit Sharma has chosen to open the innings, and if he bats long enough, he can destroy the opposition bowlers single-handedly.

Among the bowlers - Jasprit Bumrah. He had a poor game against the Delhi Capitals, and began poorly against Royal Challengers Bangalore too. But Bumrah lifted his game when bowling to the likes of Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers, and played a big role in MI clinching that win in Bengaluru. He has never previously dismissed Chris Gayle in the IPL, and if he does that on Saturday evening, he will have done his team a huge favour.

The spotlight will also be on Varun Chakravarthy. KXIP’s mystery spinner had an extremely difficult initiation to the IPL; he conceded 25 runs in his very first over, and finished with figures of 3-0-35-1. How will the one-time-architect respond to the pressures of competitive cricket?

Head to Head in Indian Premier League

Overall: Matches – 22, Kings XI Punjab – 10, Mumbai Indians won – 12.

Last season, the Mumbai Indians won both their matches against Kings XI Punjab. In the first meeting in Indore, Krunal Pandya’s cameo – 31 from 12 balls – helped MI chase down 174. In the return fixture in Mumbai, the visitors needed 17 runs off the last over, but they could only score 13 runs off Mitchell McClenaghan. MI emerged victors by 3 runs.

Trivia

Kings XI Punjab won all three matches they played at the IS Bindra Stadium in VIVO IPL 2018.

Mumbai Indians have won their last four matches at the IS Bindra Stadium; the last time they lost a match at the venue was in 2011.

Hardik Pandya’s economy rate in his last 13 T20 matches stands at 9.88. In matches prior to that, his economy rate was 7.79.