Mumbai Indians can virtually guarantee a spot in the 2019 Indian Premier League (IPL) playoffs with a win over Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens on Sunday. MI are currently on 14 points and are firm favourites to beat KKR, who are enduring a bad run of results that’s seen them lose their last six games. Mumbai, on the other hand, will head into the game with confidence after ending table-toppers Chennai Super Kings’ undefeated home record this season on Friday. Furthermore, looking at the head-to-head between these two teams won’t exactly inspire confidence within the KKR ranks. Over the years, a record of 18 wins from 23 meetings speaks for itself.

Head-to-head

MI 18-5 KKR

Form Guide (Last 5 Games)

Mumbai Indians: W L W W L

Kolkata Knight Riders: L L L L L

From the MI dugout

Having won four of our six away games this year, it’s only natural that the boys will want to end their last away match of the league stage with another victory. MI has always enjoyed playing against KKR and the upcoming match will be no different with our batsmen and bowlers brimming with confidence. Evin Lewis, who played his first match of the season against Chennai, will relish batting on the Kolkata pitch. All-rounders Hardik Pandya and Kieron Pollard will also be threats to Kolkata going by the amount of sixes that have been hit at the Eden Gardens this year. On the bowling front, Jasprit Bumrah, Lasith Malinga and Rahul Chahar will be expected to get us the breakthroughs.

Key Player

The last game in Chepauk saw skipper Rohit Sharma return to form with a well-constructed 67 that laid the foundations for our win over CSK. This comes as bad news for KKR against whom Rohit’s got a splendid record, including his highest IPL score of 109*. Rohit also loves batting in the Eden Gardens and scored the highest ever individual ODI total of 264 against Sri Lanka at the same venue. All these things make grim reading for KKR, who must dismiss our skipper early to stand any sort of a chance in this game.

From the KKR dugout

Confidence within the KKR camp would be at an all-time low following six consecutive losses that’s all but ruled them out of the playoff reckoning. The problem with KKR has been their inability to function as a cohesive unit. Individuals have shone for them throughout the tournament, but the overall team performance is what’s let them down. Even their last game saw Dinesh Karthik bat exquisitely to score an unbeaten 97, while Sunil Narine seemed to be back to his best as the opposition batsmen failed to read him. However, the lack of support from the rest of the team is what let them down and has been the story of their season.

Key Player

Speaking on individuals shining, perhaps there’s no better example than that of Andre Russell, who has been immense – to put it mildly – for KKR this season. The strong Jamaican all-rounder has been Kolkata’s best player by a country mile and often their lone warrior. He has taken eight wickets and is their leading scorer with 406 runs. Russell has also hit the most sixes (42) and has the best strike rate (209.27) in IPL 2019.