In the 56th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022, old rivals Mumbai Indians (MI) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will be locking horns with each other at the Dr DY Patil Sports Academy in Mumbai. It will be the second match between the two teams this season. MI is currently placed at the bottom of the points table of this season as they have won just a couple of matches while KKR is standing at the eighth spot with just 4 wins under their belt in 11 games they have played so far.
Mumbai Indians played ten matches in this season of IPL where they managed to win just a couple of matches. In their last game against Gujarat Titans (GT), MI registered a narrow win by 5 runs. Ishan Kishan and Tim David played match-winning knocks of 45 runs and 44 runs respectively for MI. On the other hand, KKR played their last game against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and suffered a huge loss by 75 runs.
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Andre Russell managed to score 45 runs for Kolkata Knight Riders in that game. The last time they played against each other in this season, Kolkata Knight Riders beat Mumbai Indians by 5 wickets. In the 30 meetings between the two sides in IPL so far, MI is leading the charts 22-8 against KKR in the head-to-head battles. In the last 5 meetings, however, it’s 3-2 in favor of MI.
Ahead of Friday’s clash, We take a look at the player battles to watch out for in the KKR vs MI match.
#1 Rohit Sharma vs Tim Southee
The out-of-form Rohit Sharma has witnessed a lot of criticism in recent times and it has ranged from mild to scathing and the MI skipper will be keen to get his form back. With too many single-digit scores this season, Rohit has looked vulnerable and helpless — something Tim Southee will be expected to exploit. Shami has been impressive for the Titans as he has scalped 11 wickets from 6 matches this season at an economy rate of 7.7.
#2 Shreyas Iyer vs Jasprit Burmah
The sheer pace and controlled length meet extreme power when KKR captain, Shreyas Iyer will be up against his Indian teammate, Jasprit Bumrah. The MI fast bowler has been a bit off-color this season, scalping just 5 wickets from 10 matches so far, at an economy rate of 6.93. Iyer has been in scintillating form for KKR, as he has amassed 330 runs from 11 games at an average of 33 and a strike rate of 130.95.
#3 Tilak Varma vs Sunil Narine
Tilak Varma has been pretty average against spinners in IPL 2022 as he has smashed a boundary every 6.4 balls against them. However, he has never faced Sunil Narine before. While Varma has looked in decent form, and he has been pretty consistent in the last few games with the scores of 51*, 38, 35. Narine was expensive with the ball in the last match. However, he will be eager to exploit the inexperienced MI’s middle-order that’s been good enough for them, so far, this season.
