The 5th match of the IPL 2021 will be played in the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai and will see the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) taking on the Mumbai Indians (MI). The match will be played on April 13 and will begin at 7.30 PM IST.
Defending champions Mumbai Indians started off their IPL 2021 campaign with a loss against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), all thanks to an amazing knock by AB de Villiers.
On the other hand, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), started off with a win in their first match against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), the other night on April 11.
Both have played one match each in Chennai and will play their first encounter against each other also at the same venue. Keeping this in mind, TEAM COC presents the Predicted Playing XIs for the KKR v MI match.
KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS (KKR)
KKR had a good outing against SRH in their first match and they read the pitch perfectly. Despite losing the toss, KKR was in the advantage of defending a decent total on a pitch that got slower and slower and KKR possessed three very good spinners to take advantage of the wicket.
It is possible that they would like to go in with the same playing XI in their second match of the IPL 2021 against MI, who themselves are a formidable team.
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Nitish Rana and Shubman Gill gave them a solid start, though Gill got out to Rashid Khan, failing to read the wrong one. Rahul Tripathi at no.3 was a dicey move, but it paid off as he accelerated the scoring enough for KKR to let the big-hitters go bang-bang in the last few overs.
The middle order of Russell, Morgan, and Karthik had little to do, but Karthik shined in his cameo, hitting a few lusty blows, as expected of him.
The bowling was top-class but it was surprising to see Harbhajan Singh getting just one over while Andre Russell went for 32 runs in his 3 overs. Morgan might want to utilize his most experienced spinner a bit more if he is playing 3 spinners in his XI.
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Shakib and Varun bowled nicely but didn’t pick any wicket, while Prasidh Krishna impressed by generating some serious pace and bounce from the Chennai track. Cummins bowled within himself and got a wicket, but Morgan needlessly bowled Russell, who might be better off bowling on other grounds.
MUMBAI INDIANS (MI)
MI didn’t do much wrong but it was a brilliant bowling effort from RCB to keep their formidable batting lineup to just 159 runs. Rohit, Ishan, and Surya all got starts, but couldn’t carry on that momentum, while Lynn got out at the wrong time.
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The big-hitters failed to come to the party on a slow track, which didn’t aid their batting style and thus Mumbai failed to put up a par score in Chennai. However, the MI side will potentially make one change as Quinton de Kock has completed his mandatory quarantine and is available for this game.
This means Chris Lynn, who top-scored for MI with 49, might have to make way for the flamboyant left-handed keeper-batsman.
However, they must be proud of their bowling, which made RCB work for their runs, especially newbie Marco Jansen and the experienced duo of Boult and Bumrah. Krunal Pandya varied his pace brilliantly, but Rahul Chahar failed to read the pitch and tweak his bowling style, and went for runs.
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Rohit Sharma might want to bring in Jayant Yadav to counter KKR’s left-handers, but he might also want to give Chahar one more match at Chennai to prove himself.
He also has the option of bowling Pollard, whose slower balls might work well on Chepauk's pitch, which is notoriously slow.
This match will be a high octane encounter between two very good and aggressive batting sides, who have to deal with a spin-friendly surface in Chennai, which makes for an interesting encounter.
KKR COC Predicted Playing XI:
Nitish Rana, Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Andre Russell, Eoin Morgan (C), Dinesh Karthik (WK), Shakib Al Hasan, Pat Cummins, Harbhajan Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Prasidh Krishna
MI COC Predicted Playing XI:
Quinton de Kock (WK), Rohit Sharma (C), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Marco Jansen, Rahul Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult
