What

The Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders will be desperate to clinch the two points available for the taking in Match 56 in VIVO IPL 2019; two points from a win will guarantee the Mumbai Indians a top-two finish, while a win for the Knight Riders will see them sneak into the playoffs.

Both teams will be confident coming into this match; the Mumbai Indians will be bustling with confidence following their Super Over win against Sunrisers Hyderabad, while the Knight Riders have some momentum behind them following wins over MI and Kings XI Punjab.

When

5 May 2019, 8pm IST

Where

Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai

Previous Match XIs:

Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Quinton de Kock, Suryakumar Yadav, Evin Lewis, Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Rahul Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, Lasith Malinga, Barinder Sran.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Shubman Gill, Chris Lynn, Robbie Uthappa, Dinesh Karthik, Andre Russell, Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Sunil Narine, Piyush Chawla, Harry Gurney, Sandeep Warrier.

Protagonists

The Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders have identical strengths – particularly on the batting front; both teams have solid openers and then one destructive finisher who has delivered the goods time and again. MI’s Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock may have not lit up the tournament with their batting, but they have faced a lot of deliveries and have consistently scored runs. The Knight Riders may have figured it out very late in the season that Shubman Gill and Chris Lynn make a very sound opening pair; in their last two matches, Gill and Lynn have seen KKR off to solid starts and have made good scores themselves. Lynn brings aggression to the crease, while young Gill is a picture of calm and class with the bat in hand.

Lower down the batting line-up, MI and KKR possess two of most explosive finishers in VIVO IPL 2019. Andre Russell and Hardik Pandya generally deal in the currency of sixes; while Russell has hit 52 of them, Hardik has hit 29 in the 191 balls he has faced. Just in these last couple of matches, bowlers seem to have worked out a means to keep them quiet; will the two finishers be able to overcome what is now perceived as a weakness?

On the bowling front, MI will expect Lasith Malinga and Jasprit Bumrah to do the bulk of the damage. Given that the surface at the Wankhede Stadium always offers bounce, the Kolkata Knight Riders will be contemplating bringing Kuldeep Yadav back into their playing XI.

Head to Head in Indian Premier League

Overall: Matches – 24, Mumbai Indians – 18, Kolkata Knight Riders – 6.

At the Wankhede Stadium: Matches – 8, Mumbai Indians – 7, Kolkata Knight Riders – 1.

What Next

Both teams conclude their league stage assignments with this fixture. If the Mumbai Indians are victorious in this contest, they will head back to Chennai to compete in Qualifier 1 scheduled to be played on May 7; if they finish third in the table, they will compete in the Eliminator, scheduled to be played in Visakhapatnam on May 8. If KKR are able to sneak into the top four, they will compete against the third-placed team in the Eliminator on May 8.