With the weekend over we are back to just the one match in the Indian Premier League on Monday and it comes from Mohali as the struggling Kings XI Punjab host their fellow strugglers Mumbai Indians in a match both will eagerly be looking to win.
Kings XI Punjab
After five matches in the tournament the Kings XI have just one win and not surprisingly they sit bottom of the table. If they are to have any chance of making the postseason this match is must win for them.
I’m becoming a bit of a broken record but the balance in their batting is all wrong and that isn’t helped by David Miller and Glenn Maxwell being in wretched form. It would benefit the team if they rested Maxwell but do the powers that be have the guts to do it?
Mumbai Indians
After the weekend matches the Indians are down in sixth place. They will be ruing not beating Delhi on Saturday in a match they looked to have every chance of winning only to falter in the middle overs. In the end they left themselves with too much to do and that is disappointing.
Mumbai have played an extra match to everyone else and while they have won two matches they have lost four and another defeat here would need them requiring another miracle to get in the playoff spots. They’ve managed to recover from poor starts to campaigns for the last two years but how many times does the well have water in it?
Team news
Kings XI have to be strong and make changes but will they? They could change their entire bowling attack around if they wanted to because it has delivered precious little in the tournament to date. Farhaan Behardien is waiting in the wings if Maxwell is omitted.
Mumbai Indians are a more settled side but their overseas players aren’t totally firing yet. Kieron Pollard needs to make a big impact soon, as does Jos Buttler. Martin Guptill and Corey Anderson are knocking the door down to be selected.
Form
Kings XI Punjab: LLWLL
Mumbai Indians: LWLLWL
Head to head: Kings XI Punjab 8-8 Mumbai Indians
In Mohali: Kings XI Punjab 3-3 Mumbai Indians
PCA Stadium
We have had three matches in this tournament so far and the highest first innings score has been just 161/6 which is against the norm because this is usually a high scoring ground. Even allowing for the wickets being used for the T20 World Cup they haven’t been minefields to bat on but teams have batted poorly here.
Although the boundaries are massive here the chance to run twos and threes are there but we’re yet to see a batting side really go after the ball on this ground in the tournament. I wouldn’t rule out a high scoring match but I wouldn’t bank on one either. All three matches so far have been won comfortably by the chasing side.
Betting
The match outcome is quite hard to bet on here because both sides are out of form at the minute. Mumbai Indians seem much happier chasing. In fact they’ve looked useless when they’ve had to set a total but they messed up a run chase last time out. Kings XI have been so poor it is hard to know what they would prefer to do!
If I had to pick a side it would be the Mumbai Indians but I’m in no rush to back them at solid odds on so not for the first time in this tournament I will head to the side markets for my bet in this match.
Sixes are very rare on this ground. So far in the three matches here the sixes totals have made up to six, four and two. The last two matches between these two here have totalled 10 and seven so they don’t flow much more when these two meet.
We’ve got two out of form sides here who will just be desperate to win rather than belt balls out of the park so I’m surprised the sixes line is as high as 11.5 in this match. Mumbai’s attack isn’t the easiest to smash around while the Kings XI can be hard to hit over the top.
All things being equal that line looks a little high to me at any time on this ground let alone on a wicket which is showing signs of tiredness and when both sides are bang out of nick. I’m firmly in the unders camp here.
Tips
Back Under 11.5 sixes for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with William Hill
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