 The Kings XI Punjab will take on the Mumbai Indians in the 54th game of
the Indian Premier League. The match will be played at the PCA stadium
in Mohali and will be a home game for the Kings XI Punjab.
Punjab's foray into the tournament had been good, when they won three out of their
first four games. However, now, after nine games their win count has continued
to remain at three and that means that they have lost five games in a row.
Click for Live Score Card of Mohali Punjab Kings Vs Mumbai Indians
On the other hand, the Mumbai Indians are on a different pedestal altogether.
They have won eight of their games, having played only ten and their two losses
came on separate occasions in the tournament - not as a part of a run. This
is a hallmark of a side which has the tenacity to bounce back from defeats,
unlike some of the other teams which have had runs of two losses in a row at
least once. Punjab, as stated earlier, have gone down in five successive games.
The Mumbai Indians are the in-form side. They have batted extremely well and the
one position that one thought was struggling, the opening bat, has also been effectively
sealed with the super batting from Aiden Blizzard. Blizzard had a blistering start
to the innings when he smashed a quickfire 38 to take the side along to a score
of 170 and won them the previous game against the Pune Warriors.
Of course, the Mumbai Indians cause has been helped in no small way by the
batting of Ambati Rayadu and by the bowling of the two pace bowlers in Lasith
Malinga and Munaf Patel, both of whom have been able to extract much
out of the track.
On the other hand, the Kings XI Punjab have made batting an onerous task. Adam Gilchrist has failed so regularly that his original batting prowess is long
lost. Paul Valthaty has had a couple of knocks but failed after that while Shaun
Marsh gets his starts but isn't getting too much support from the batsmen at
the other end.
Punjab need to ensure that they can put the runs on the board if they bat first
because challenging a batting line-up as strong as Mumbai Indians is never going
to be an easy task.
Mumbai Indians will be favourites to win their ninth game and Punjab will need
to do something drastic to be able to prevent that from happening.
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