The Indian Premier League moves back to Abu Dhabi on Thursday as two of the sides on two points from their opening three matches meet when the Kings XI Punjab take on the defending champions Mumbai Indians in a big game for both sides.
Just two points separate first to last in this league but while that makes the table tightly bunched it does mean that teams on two points can quickly get left behind if they lose again and teams above them all win. That makes this one pretty important for both these outfits.
Kings XI Punjab
The Kings XI Punjab could be forgiven for wondering how they are not three wins out of three for the competition. They were in control of their opening match but couldn’t get over the line when it looked easier to win than lose, won their second match by a huge margin and then somehow surrendered a fantastic position against the Rajasthan Royals in their previous outing. That shows there is a bit of a fragility in them in the pressured moments which is never a bad thing.
This will be the first taste of Abu Dhabi for the Kings XI so they will need to adapt pretty quickly. Often when a side lets such a great position go in their previous match you’d suggest they could do with chasing but having tossed a game away when chasing in their opening match that isn’t necessarily the case. What they need is their death bowling to be on point because we’ve seen that they can score runs throughout the tournament so far.
Mumbai Indians
The Mumbai Indians won their opening match but they have lost two since then. They were involved in a cracking contest last time out when they looked dead and buried before Kieron Pollard and Ishan Kishan gave them hope with a blitz that the Royal Challengers Bangalore are victims off all too often for their liking. After getting the equation down to something manageable the Indians then couldn’t quite get over the line in a Super Over where some of their tactics were questionable to say the least, to leave them behind the ledger in their title defence.
The big concern for the Mumbai outfit going into this match is the state of their bowling attack. It has been smashed around the park on a couple of occasions at certain times in contest and their death bowling doesn’t carry the pinpoint precision that it normally does. That is going to need to change quickly if they are to get back to the levels they need to be at in order to make a successful defence of their title.
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Key Men
KL Rahul has a good record batting against Jasprit Bumrah and if he can win their battle first up in this contest you would think the Kings XI will go a long way towards winning the match. Rahul’s captaincy will need to be spot on especially in those death overs.
Kieron Pollard showed all of his class in the previous match and if the Mumbai Indians pace their innings right then the Trinidadian should be able to take advantage of the buffet that tends to come along at the death from the Kings XI.
Betting
You’ve got to think that the Mumbai Indians are the ones to be on here with the way Kings XI Punjab are bowling at the death but in truth they aren’t looking wholly convincing themselves so I don’t really want to trust them at a short price. At some point their bowling is going to come good but I’ll need to see that happen before I trust it to. Instead I’ll leave the match betting alone and head towards the sixes which could come in plentiful supply.
The line for this match is at 11.5 but when you look down the power that is on show in these batting line ups that looks on the low side. The first thing to acknowledge is that we are likely to start seeing short boundaries more and more this week as the ground staff use the whole square in order to keep wickets as fresh as possible. Both teams have left-handers in their side so that any short boundary can always be attacked so that helps. Neither bowling attack has been on song in the tournament so far so I’m expecting another dozen sixes here in a tournament that has been full of them.
Tips
WON – Back Over 11.5 sixes for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with William Hill
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