Mumbai Indians are through to the play-offs and are the in-form team of the competition. Kings XI Punjab are fifth in the IPL 2017 table and looking to snatch the fourth position from Sunrisers Hyderabad, the reigning Champions of the IPL. So as you can imagine, this should be am exciting contest.
Mumbai have won 10 of their 19 games against Kings XI Punjab. They have been dominant in recent times, having won most of the games against the Punjab outfit over the last few seasons.
Mumbai Indians lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad by seven wickets in their last match, but had a massive win over Delhi Daredevils, beating them by 146 runs. They also beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by five wickets.
Kings XI Punjab are fifth, having beaten Kolkata Knight Riders by 14 runs. They lost to Gujarat Lions by six wickets, but beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by 19 runs.
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In this season, Mumbai has gone past Kings XI’s score of 198 with eight wickets and with 5 overs to go. That indicates how good Mumbai have been.
Kings XI have lost Hashim Amla and David Miller to the South African team and have a depleted international contingent. They will certainly miss Amla, who is the only player to have scored two centuries in the IPL 2017, but Miller really hasn’t done much at all.
For Mumbai Indians, Lasith Malinga will play for the rest of the season, having received permission from the Sri Lankan team management for this. Mumbai will consider whether to open with Lendl Simmons or Jos Buttler along with Parthiv Patel. They might also choose to go with captain Rohit Sharma, their best batsman.
Mumbai Indians would be worried over the form of young Nitish Rana, who has not done much in the last 3 or 4 games, despite having a rollicking start to this season. They would however be happy with Kieron Pollard, who has certainly justified his place in the side.
The Teams
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
Kings XI Punjab: 1 Martin Guptill, 2 Manan Vohra, 3 Shaun Marsh, 4 Glenn Maxwell (capt), 5 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 6 Axar Patel, 7 Rahul Tewatia, 8 Swapnil Singh, 9 Matt Henry, 10 Mohit Sharma, 11 Sandeep Sharma
Watch Mumbai Indians play Kings XI Punjab tonight at 8 PM on Sony Six!
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