This is a game we have all been waiting for, Mumbai Indians versus Kolkata Knight Riders. They are the two best teams in the competition and are evenly matched in every respect.
Mumbai Indians have an edge over KKR, as they lead them 14-5 overall. They have won their last 4 games against KKR and have a stellar record at Eden Gardens, having won 5 of their last 7 games there.
Kolkata Knight Riders are second in the IPL 2017 table, having lost their last match to Kings XI Punjab by 14 runs, beaten Royal Challengers Bangalore by six wickets and having lost to Rising Pune Supergiant by four wickets.
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Mumbai Indians are first, having lost their last game to Kings XI Punjab by seven runs. They also lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad by seven wickets but had a massive win over Delhi Daredevils by 146 runs.
The news is that Shakib Al Hasan has joined Bangladesh’s squad for the tournament in Ireland, so won’t feature in the rest of the IPL. It is not as though he has really done much anyway. The poor guy has only played one game in the whole IPL 2017, and his massive sized ego has been ruthlessly cut by the KKR management.
Nathan Coulter-Nile has done very well for KKR, but suffered a blow on his helmet grille from a bouncer from fast bowler Dan Christian of Rising Pune Supergiant and has been ruled out of this game. Suryakumar Yadav is out as well because of an injury sustained during training.
Chris Woakes, for KKR, and Jos Buttler, for Mumbai Indians, won’t be part of the playoffs, they are off to join the England team but are available for this game.
So Mumbai has already qualified for the playoffs as a part of the top 2. KKR will need to win this game to confirm their position in the top 2. This game will decide who finishes first, but that won’t matter much. The real contest now begins with the playoffs to be played again between these two sides a few days from now.
The Teams
Kolkata Knight Riders: 1 Sunil Narine, 2 Chris Lynn, 3 Gautam Gambhir (capt), 4 Robin Uthappa (wk), 5 Manish Pandey, 6 Yusuf Pathan, 7 Colin de Grandhomme, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Umesh Yadav, 11 Ankit Rajpoot
Mumbai Indians: 1 Lendl Simmons, 2 Parthiv Patel (wk), 3 Nitish Rana, 4 Rohit Sharma (capt), 5 Kieron Pollard, 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Karn Sharma, 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 Mitchell McClenaghan, 10 Lasith Malinga, 11 Jasprit Bumrah
Watch Kolkata Knight Riders take on Mumbai Indians tonight on Sony Six at 8 pm!
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