The defending champions Mumbai Indians started their 2021 IPL campaign with a loss to the Royal Challengers Bangalore. Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma shrugged off the loss and said that at the end of the day, it only mattered which team ended up winning the 2021 IPL.
The Mumbai Indians are looking to win their third consecutive IPL trophy this season and are the betting favorites to do so. The next challenge for the Mumbai Indians is the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) whom they will face on April 13 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
KKR had a good start to their IPL campaign when they defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad by 10 runs. KKR put up a good performance with both the bat and ball, which will give them confidence to face the Mumbai Indians.
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Even though the Mumbai Indians started with a loss, they are still the betting favorites to win against KKR. Bookmakers have given the Mumbai Indians odds of 2.10 while KKR are the underdogs with odds of 1.72. Our experts share their predictions on the strengths and weaknesses of each side as well as give you their prediction as to who will win this game.
Mumbai Indians – Keys To Victory
While Mumbai Indians ended up losing their first game to RCB, it is important to point out that this was a very close match that went down to the wire and RCB won with the last ball. The Mumbai Indians did almost everything right in that game and will not look to make any major changes going into the game against KKR.
What they need to work on in their batting department is to get one or two of the batsmen to build their innings and not get out when they are set. This could make a big difference between a total of 160 and a total of 180 plus. Their batting line-up looked good and Mumbai Indians should look to go in with the same squad.
The bowlers also did a great job with the exception of R Chahar who went for over 10 runs an over. Mumbai Indians should give the spinner a few more chances before looking at a replacement. What the Mumbai Indians can also do is look to give H Pandya a couple of overs when one of their other bowlers are under the pump.
We will have to wait and see if Mumbai Indians can bounce back or if KKR can expose a few more chinks in their armour.
KKR – Keys To Victory
Kolkata Knight Riders put on a great performance against SRH in their opening game and showed fans that they can be a serious contender this season. N Rana and R Tripathi both looked very impressive with the bat and some power hitting by D Karthik down the order showed KKR that they can do well even when the likes of Eoin Morgan, A Russell and S Gill do not fire.
While the batting department fired for KKR, the bowling unit impressed even more. Eoin Morgan marshalled his troops really well during this game and it showed why Morgan is one of the most experienced and impressive T20 captain’s in this game.
Verdict
KKR have struggled in previous editions of the IPL because they have struggled to be consisted as a team. If Morgan can help KKR overcome this weakness, KKR should be able to register their second win in IPL 2021. This game could very well be decided by whether R Sharma or Eoin Morgan is the better captain on the day!
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