Kings XI Punjab take on Mumbai Indians tonight at a time when Mumbai Indians know that a defeat in this match effectively means that they are out of the Indian Premier League 2018.
Wow! Who would have predicted that? Mumbai Indians were the hot favorites to win the IPL. They are the most successful team in IPL history and it’s to believe that a team like that is going down so easily.
The loss to RCB in the last match was probably a killer blow to Mumbai and we don’t really expect them to recover from that. Mumbai realize the seriousness of the situation and the players know how badly they have messed up this campaign.
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Shane Bond, Mumbai Indians’ bowling coach, tried his best to be optimistic about the whole thing. Speaking to the media, Bond said, “We have six games left, and we have to win them all. That is what we have to do. I still believe when you look at our squad, we have key players who can win us six games in a row. We have done it in the past, and I believe we can do it again.”
But it’s not so easy when you’re up against the Universe Boss, Chris Gayle. The Universe Boss had a quiet time last 7-10 days after his red hot start in the IPL.
He will be expected to get back to form and put Kings XI back on winning ways. KL Rahul will be looking forward to this game as well.
The problem with Kings XI Punjab is that apart from the top two of Gayle and Rahul none of the others have really done anything in this IPL. Yuvraj has been a massive disappointment and has been dropped. His replacement Manoj Tiwary did not really do much in the last game. Aaron Finch has had a disastrous time so far.
As for Mumbai Indians, they are deeply worried about Kieron Pollard. Pollard has been a big failure for them. He can hardly score at more than run a ball. He is certainly not the player he was and is dragging his team down with him.
Prediction: Kings XI to win this one. But Mumbai have a chance if they get Gayle early.
The Teams
Kings XI Punjab: 1 Chris Gayle, 2 KL Rahul (wk), 3 Mayank Agarwal, 4 Karun Nair, 5 Aaron Finch, 6 Manoj Tiwary, 7 R Ashwin (capt.), 8 Andrew Tye, 9 Barinder Sran, 10 Ankit Rajpoot, 11 Mujeeb Ur Rahman
Mumbai Indians: 1 Suryakumar Yadav, 2 Evin Lewis, 3 Ishan Kishan (wk), 4 Rohit Sharma (capt.), 5 JP Duminy, 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Krunal Pandya, 8 Ben Cutting, 9 Mitchell McClenaghan, 10 Mayank Markande, 11 Jasprit Bumrah
Watch Kings XI Punjab play Mumbai Indians tonight at 8 pm LIVE on Star Sports!
