The Mumbai Indians have lost their last three games, all of which were away from home.
The Mumbai Indians have lost their last three games, all of which were away from home.
In match number 51 of the 2024 Indian Premier League, the Mumbai Indians will play their home game at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai after four straight away games against the second-place Kolkata Knight Riders.
With only net run rate separating them from an equally fragile Royal Challengers Bengaluru, the Mumbai Indians are now on a three-match losing streak and occupying a perilous ninth position in the points standings. They had a dismal batting effort in their most recent game, scoring a pitiful 144 runs, with Tim David being the only player to make a significant contribution. To their credit, MI was able to force the final over of the game.
Kolkata Knight Riders are experiencing a season that is very different from MI’s; despite the fact that they have twice this season broken the record for the most successful chase in the IPL, they have managed six victories from nine games, are second in the points table, and have a higher NRR than LSG. While KKR enters this away game having played five straight home games and won three of them, MI enters this game as a home game following four straight road games. In their most recent game, they faced the Delhi Capitals, and Phil Salt easily reached the mark after limiting them to just 153.
Pitch report for Wankhede Stadium: This game will take place on the same flat field as the rest of the season. The idea of such a forgiving surface will make the batters happy, and they will even be anticipating batting on it. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to anticipate a high total in this particular match.
IPL Records & Stats at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium:
Out of 113 games, the side batting second has won 52 of them. There has never been a match that ended in a draw, and the first innings score is typically 170.
Strategies and match-ups for MI vs. KKR:
Given the flatness of the surface, batting second could seem like the best option, but given the shape MI’s bowlers are in, KKR will likely believe that batting first gives them a realistic chance of cracking the 250 and possibly even the 260 barrier. Because of how level the surface is, batting first will provide both teams the best opportunity of winning this match. Sunil Narine vs. Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah vs. Phil Salt, Mitchell Starc vs. Suryakumar Yadav, Vaibhav Arora vs. Ishan Kishan, and Piyush Chawla vs. Sunil Narine are the key match-ups for this game.
Sunil Narine vs. Rohit Sharma: In their IPL encounter, Rohit Sharma has amassed 141 runs in 128 balls and been removed seven times, which is a record for the most wickets a bowler has taken off of a batsman. These figures equate to a 20.14 average and a 110.15 strike rate for Sharma versus Narine.
Jasprit Bumrah versus Shreyas Iyer:
Bumrah has only once in 40 balls managed to remove the KKR captain. Iyer has a strike rate of 147.5 and an average of 59 runs scored over this time. This is encouraging for Iyer, who hasn’t been very consistent this season.
X-Factors: MI against KKR
Indians in Mumbai:
Jasprit Bumrah, the star bowler, has been the only thing keeping the near-bottom-placed MI team in the black this season. Bumrah will be MI’s best, if not their only, option to stop the batting Kolkata Knight Riders on a field as flat as the one that the Wankhede Stadium is predicted to provide:
Sunil Narine has been KKR’s second-highest run scorer and joint-highest wicket-taker this season with both the bat and the ball. His contributions in all areas will be critical to KKR’s prospects and will add stability to a season that has faltered in the last five games.