IPL 2024: Mumbai Indians V Kolkata Knight Riders – Preview, Expected Lineups, Free Bets & Offers

On By Vaseline

The state of affairs

The high-flying Kolkata Knight Riders will look to improve on their dismal record at the Wankhede Stadium when they visit Mumbai Indians tomorrow.

KKR are second on the IPL 2024 table and have won six of their nine matches, but they have not won at the iconic Mumbai venue since 2012, when Sunil Narine inspired them to victory with four for 15.

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Narine is now a swashbuckling opener whose efforts at the top of the order alongside Phil Salt have done much to put Shreyas Iyer’s men in a position where the play-offs look all but certain.

Salt was the hero last time out with a 33-ball 68 as KKR eased past Delhi Capitals by seven wickets.

The England international said: “It comes with a high degree of risk at times, but it’s also about putting the odds in your favor and not taking the risks you don’t want.

“That’s the kind of balance every leadoff hitter tries to achieve. Sometimes you can miss the boat for a few innings in a row, but you have to keep supporting yourself and take the right options.”

He and Narine are the highest scoring opening pair in the competition with 485 runs.

“We have this match up nicely, (and) that’s because when one of us goes to bat, you pass the strike to that person,” Salt said. “When I go to bat, he gives me the strike, and vice versa. It’s good that we’re on the same page.”

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The Indians will have to keep the pair quiet if they want to revive a largely dismal season.

Captain Hardik Pandya has failed to inspire his team and has faced a lot of criticism as a result.

In their last outing, they lost to the Lucknow Super Giants by four wickets, leaving the five-time champions on the brink of elimination.

Paceman Jasprit Bumrah is the only player to stand out, and no one has surpassed his 14 wickets in IPL 2024 so far.

But repeated failures on the power play have hampered their progress and they enter this match hoping to avoid a fourth straight loss.

Expected line-ups:

Mumbai Indians: Kishan (wk), Sharma, Yadav, Varma, Pandya (c), Wadhera, David, Nabi, Coetzee, Chawla, Bumrah

Kolkata Knight Riders: Salt (wk), Narine, Rin Singh, S Iyer (c), V Iyer, Russell, Ram Singh, Starc, Arora, Chakravarthy, Rana

How to watch

Sky has the rights to show the IPL to British viewers in 2024 and will broadcast every match live. Friday’s match will be shown on Sky Sports Cricket from 2.50pm BST.

In India, the games can be streamed on the Jio Cinema app and website. They are also available on the Star Sports Network.

Prediction

Hoodoos are there to be broken and there seems no better time for the Knight Riders to finally achieve victory in the Wankhede.

Rarely has there been such a gap between the teams, not so much in ability, but mainly in confidence.

The Indians appear bereft of self-belief with repeated batting failures symptomatic of their collective and repeated brain fade.

KKR, on the other hand, can rely on their openers to create a platform. In this crash-bang-wallop format, getting a strong start makes a huge difference.

All evidence points to an away win and we can’t disagree, Wankhede hoodoo or not.