In the 34th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will be locking horns with Mumbai Indians (MI) at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Thursday (September 23). In their first game of the UAE leg, MI suffered a loss against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on Sunday, and now they are in a desperate need of a win to hang on to their top-four position, as a slip-up can push them way below on the point table.
And as for the Knight Riders, they made a bright start to the second phase of the IPL 2021 with a thrashing win over Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). Mumbai Indians currently take the 4th spot in the points table with 8 points. Out of 8 matches, MI has won 4 and suffered losses in as many games.
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KKR won their opening game of UAE leg against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). Out of 8 matches, KKR has won 3 and lost 5. With 6 points, they hold the 6th place in the points table. In the previous MI vs KKR encounter, Mumbai Indians won the match by 10 runs. Ahead of the MI vs KKR match of IPL 2021, let’s have a look at 3 interesting player battles to watch out for.
#1 Shubman Gill vs Trent Boult
Shubman Gill came out all guns blazing against RCB and smashed 48 runs. The right-handed opener has so far amaased 180 runs in 8 innings. With his great knock in the last match, Gill will aim to play another good knock against MI. Trent Boult will have the task to neutralize the threat of Shubman Gill. Boult usually bowls the starting overs for MI and Shubman Gill bats as an opener for KKR. Hence, both the players will definitely face each other. Hence, it will be interesting to watch who among the two overpowers the other.
#2 Rohit Sharma vs Prasidh Krishna
Rohit Sharma will be be expected to play his first match of the UAE leg of the IPL 2021 against KKR. He missed the last game against CSK but will lead the team in the clash against KKR. With 250 runs in 7 games, Sharma is the highest run-scorer for Mumbai Indians. He has only managed to score 1 half-century in the tournament and will be eager to score another big knock.
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Prasidh Krishna will have the task to send back Sharma as early as possible. In the previous game, he bagged the crucial wicket of Virat Kohli. Prasidh Krishna has picked 9 wickets in 8 games so far. After Pat Cummins deciding to pull out from the UAE leg, Prasidh Krishna is the most dependable pacer for KKR.
#3 Andre Russell vs Jasprit Bumrah
Andre Russell has the ability of demolishing any bowling line-up in the world and that males him the most dangeruous batsman in KKR team. In IPL 2021 so far, the right-handed batsman has piled up 163 runs in 8 innings with 1 half-century. However, against for MI, Jasprit Bumrah will be given the responsibility of dismissing Russell without a big score. Bumrah is a wicket-taking bowler for MI and that makes his battle with Russell an interesting one. Then it will be exciting to watch if Bumrah manages to attack Russell with his deliveries or not.
