Match Number – 5, April 13, 2021
Venue – MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai
Time – 1930 PM IST
Likely playing conditions –
Chennai has traditionally been a low scoring ground with spin playing a huge part and bowlers who can change the pace of the ball having a huge say. Mumbai and Kolkata both have played their first matches here on the same ground with varying results. While KKR batted first and held on to a ten run win Mumbai on the other hand saw the brilliance of AB De Villiers take away the game from their grasp with a last ball win.
Likely playing XI for Mumbai Indians
Quinton De Kock (Wicket Keeper), Rohit Sharma (Captain), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Piyush Chawla, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah and Rahul Chahar
Likely Playing XI for Kolkata Knight Riders
Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan (Captain), Andre Russell, Dinesh Karthik (Wicket Keeper), Shakib Al Hasan, Pat Cummins, Prasidh Krishna, Harbhajan Singh and Varun Chakravarthy
Likely Star Performers with the bat
Rohit Sharma has had a great record against Kolkata Knight Riders over the years with his only IPL century coming against the two time champions. One can also count the good form of Quinton De Kock and Suryakumar Yadav who are in good nick with the bat. For KKR one has to look to at openers Gill and Rana who can slay the Mumbai bowling attack and also the power of Russell who hasn’t fired for a long time.
Likely Star Performers with the ball –
The combine of Boult and Bumrah will no doubt start as favorites in the contest with Bumrah just coming back from a long break and showing his rustiness he would love to hit the ground running and bring more glory for Mumbai. For KKR they would look at the spin trio of Shakib, Varun Chakravarthy and former Mumbai Indians stalwart Harbhajan Singh.
Players to tread caution with
With Mumbai Indians the one player who needs to be looked with caution will be Piyush Chawla the fact that he could be playing against his former team and the spinning conditions of Chennai could persuade Rohit to pick the 32 year old who can be wayward and expensive when things don’t go his way.
For Kolkata one would have to show caution with Eoin Morgan the captain himself while in the international stage he has been a success in the IPL he still has to prove himself despite his on and off involvement with the league. The task of captaincy too could prove to weigh heavy on him in the longer run.