Table toppers KKR take on holders MI in high-profile clash

The odds are in favour of table toppers Kolkata Knight Riders as they square off against defending champions Mumbai Indians, experiencing a campaign that is oscillating between high and low, in a potentially exciting Indian Premier League contest here on Thursday.

KKR and MI are the two teams that have clinched the honours alternately in the glamorous T20 league over the last four editions. With the form shown thus far in the tournament by the two outfits, the match at the Wankhede Stadium promises to be an engaging battle between two top-notch sides.

KKR are on a roll with four successive victories in five games. Interestingly, their lone defeat of the season, by six wickets, had come at the Eden Gardens against the Rohit Sharma-inspired MI on April 13. Captain Sharma blasted a match-winning 54-ball 84 not out to lead MI to victory in the first leg clash and KKR would be eager to set the record straight and stay at the top of the pecking order. The Knight Riders have travelled well this season and have also been led brilliantly by their opener Gautam Gambhir who has been the fulcrum of the batting, aggregating 237 runs from five games.

When he fell cheaply KKR struggled on to chase down Rising Pune Supergiants’ total of 160 for five and won by two wickets on April 24, thanks largely to Mumbai Ranji batsman Suryakumar Yadav’s timely 49-ball 60. Yadav got good back-up from the under-performing Yusuf Pathan (36) which helped KKR’s cause.

“It is still the start of the tournament, we need to keep continuing the way we have done in the last five games, because we have realised what has happened last year. We were right at the top of the table till the 12th game, and suddenly we did not qualify for the playoffs,” said Gambhir here during a team promotional in the run-up to the game. MI, at the other end of the spectrum, have had a mixed bag of results so far, wins coming in between losses and are going into the game with their confidence restored following a 25-run victory over Kings XI Punjab at Mohali on Monday. “It means a lot, considering our last few games hadn’t gone the way we wanted to. We played like we are known to, this is the performance we have been expecting,” said Sharma.