Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) return home to the Eden Gardens triumphant as the table-toppers in the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL) points table. They host down-and-out Mumbai Indians (MI) on Saturday.
KKR have 16 points from eleven matches and need a win more from their last three games to all but secure their place in the IPL 2024 playoffs.
KKR are still well-placed to qualify for the playoffs with the best net run-rate among all the teams.
KKR and MI have squared off 33 times in the IPL before with the Knights having been outplayed on 23 occasions but their win in Mumbai after 12 years will bolster their confidence.
KKR Team News
Sunil Narine has starred with the bat and the ball, playing a crucial role in KKR’s ascent to the top. The Trinidadian allrounder has scored 461 runs, including a hundred, at an average of 41.91 and an excellent strike-rate of 183.66 so far. Additionally, he has also taken 14 wickets at a miserly economy of 6.61. In fact, Narine is still in the running for the Orange Cap as well as the Purple Cap.
Narine’s opening partner Phil Salt is also in the top-10 among batters with 429 runs with Varun Chakaravarthy third among wicket-takers with 16 scalps to his name. Andre Russell’s 13 wickets and 198 runs down the order, have helped KKR dominate the opposition.
The duo of Shreyas Iyer and Venkatesh Iyer have stood up when needed with anchoring knocks in the middle-order as Ramandeep Singh’s no-nonsense striking at the close have made the difference in crucial games.
Harshit Rana also has picked up wickets, 14 so far, and the resurgence of Mitchell Starc, with 12 wickets, has meant KKR have bowled oppositions out on more occasions than not.
Stay updated with the latest from IPL 2024, including top contenders for the IPL 2024 Orange Cap and IPL 2024 Purple Cap. Explore the complete IPL 2024 Schedule, IPL 2024 Points Table and players with the Most Sixes, Most Fours and Most Fifties in IPL 2024
KKR Playing XI vs MI
Phil Salt (WK), Sunil Narine, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Shreyas Iyer (C), Venkatesh Iyer, Ramandeep Singh, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Mitchell Starc, Varun Chakravarthy, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora (SUB)
MI Team News
Nothing really has been going right for MI – at least not together. When the batting clicks, the bowling fails and the bowlers take wickets, the batters end up surrendering. The fact remains the star-studded team was rudder-less on majority of occasions.
The buck will have to stop with Hardik Pandya, who has had a middling season with bat and ball. Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav and Rohit Sharma have all made runs as Jasprit Bumrah is among the leading wicket-takers but seldom did their stars clicked together.
This will surely go down as one of MI’s forgettable seasons.
MI Playing XI vs KKR
Ishan Kishan (WK), Rohit Sharma, Naman Dhir, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya (C), Tim David, Anshul Kamboj, Piyush Chawla, Jasprit Bumrah, Nuwan Thushara, Nehal Wadhera (SUB)
KKR vs MI Pitch Report
The overcast skies may dictate what Shreyas and Hardik do if they happen to win the toss and concerns of a truncated game are hovering over Eden Gardens.
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