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IPL 2020 | MI vs KKR: What Experts said as Rohit Sharma and Co. breeze past the Knight Riders

Although it was the change in the captaincy of the Kolkata Knight Riders from Dinesh Karthik to Eoin Morgan that gained more traction than the match itself, Mumbai Indians wasted no time in registering its 11th win over KKR in the last 12 games including the two this season.  

The Rohit Sharma led team defeated Morgan’s side by eight wickets chasing down 149 with ease. The game turned out to be a one-sided affair in Abu Dhabi, much like the last meeting between the two teams at the same venue in the initial phase of the tournament. 

For Mumbai Indians, Rahul Chahar led with the bowl, while Quinton de Kock did the same thing with the bat. For KKR though it was a case of disappointments all around apart from late order brilliance by Pat Cummins with the willow in hand.

Captains’ Viewpoint

Rohit Sharma seemed very happy with the results of the game and talking about the same in the post-match presentation, “It's special to chase and win, gives us plenty of confidence. We didn't chase a lot in the first half (of the tournament), think we were clinical with both bat and ball, the expected performance was there.”

The skipper then went to say that he plans every game thinking about matchups between his players and that of the opposition. Expanding upon it, he explained how he had planned for the KKR all-rounder Andre Russell’s batting. “I believe a lot in match-ups, we have got success as a team (doing it),” Rohit said. 

“Understanding the match-ups is important but we need to be instinctive at times. Krunal and Rahul also bowled to Russell, I took a chance with the ball gripping and turning, but I knew Bumrah was the go-to guy against him,” added the 33-year-old. 

Impressed by fellow opener and South Africa captain Quinton de Kock, Sharma said, “I prefer batting with him (de Kock), he's very straightforward, likes to take on the bowler from the word go - but I usually like to assess the situation.” Adding that he would let de Kock play his natural game so that he too can enjoy the time in the middle, Sharma said, “I don't want to put any pressure on him.” 

Calling the tournament a funny proposition for everybody involved, especially the teams and the players, the Mumbaikar said, “This tournament is very funny, can't take the foot off the pedal at any time, we have seen teams lose at times.” 

“The guys are very hungry, they haven't played a lot over the last six months - be it Ishan or Hardik, they want to play and they want to win,” he concluded. 

On the other hand, Eoin Morgan, who was leading the men in Purple and Gold felt that the team needed to do a bit more and by the end of the first innings itself, they had thrown themselves out of the contest. “We weren’t in the race at all really, being four or five down,” he said. Adding that the score they made in the first innings was never challenging, he said, “Guys fought hard but just not enough runs on the board.”

“When a team like Mumbai plays like that, they are hard to stop,” Morgan said while praising opposition. Ireland born English captain then admitted that even after having a lot of experience in the middle, the batters have not been able to adapt to the situation. “[At] No.4, 5, and 6 we have a lot of experience. We’re trying to adapt according to the situations.” “Don’t think it would have made much difference today,” he added. 

Expert Opinion

More or less, experts after and during the match were of the view that Mumbai Indians have been flawless this year while Kolkata with their decision-making in terms of playing the matchday 11 have been pathetic. 

Talking about how Kolkata has messed up their entire season, veteran cricket expert Ayaz Memon said that the KKR team looks terribly short of confidence and due to Narine sitting out and Russell being in a bad form, the troubles have just expanded for the team. 


Harsha Bhogle, the renowned cricket commentator called Mumbai a complete team with no visible flaws.  


Former India cricketer now turned cricket pundit, Aakash Chopra too echoed Harsha's ideas and furthered it by saying that the two finalists for this year's show could Delhi and Mumbai. 


Boria Majumdar, a senior cricket journalist was of the opinion that Andre Russell in the Kolkata team hasn't been able to perform, as per expectations and therefore, the team could try new talent.   


Sambit Bal, a senior cricket journalist predicted the game to be the first of ever slow thriller along with a doubt that it might not happen due to Mumbai's brilliant batting lineup and all his fears and doubts indeed came true. 


While Kolkata would like to see their new captain turn things around with a reshuffling of the batting order when they next play against Sunrisers Hyderabad on 18th October. For Mumbai, it would be a chance to get into the playoffs with the most wins when they face Kings XI Punjab on the 18th as well.

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IPL 2020 | MI vs KKR: De Kock dazzles as Mumbai best Kolkata once again

Brief scores: Kolkata Knight Riders 148/5 in 20 overs (Pat Cummins 53*; Rahul Chahar 2-18) lost to Mumbai Indians 149/2 in 16.5 overs (Quinton de Kock 78*) by eight wickets. Kolkata Knight Riders suffered yet another crushing loss at the hands of their bogey team, Mumbai Indians in the 32nd match of the Indian Premier League 2020. Don't jump the gun on KKR's 148. For, it was scraped from thin air purely on the grounds of Pat Cummins' resolute 36-ball 53 after a humiliating batting implosion. Quinton de Kock's unbeaten 78 fit the bill nicely in response as MI usurped Delhi Capitals to the crest of the points table on Friday, October 16 at Abu Dhabi. Morgan the new cook to KKR's broth KKR skipper Dinesh Karthik had sent ripples through the cricketing fraternity by relinquishing the leadership duties for Eoin Morgan to assume charge, basically with an aim to focus on contributing with the bat. The World Cup winning talisman roped in Shivam Mavi and Chris Green as Tom Banton and Kamlesh Nagarkoti ferried electrolytes. Nathan Coulter-Nile registered his season debut for MI as James Pattinson was rested owing to workload management. Mumbai keep their rivals under the thumb The freshly-anointed captain would have only just donned the thinking cap when he had to rush for his batting gear, as KKR's top-order fell flat on its face. Rahul Tripathi, levied back to the comfort zone of the opening slot, smashed the leather off Trent Boult's wide tempter but Suryakumar Yadav at backward point yielded a glorious interception, reverse cupping the waft advancing at supersonic speed. Shubman Gill perished to an uncharacteristic heave while Nitish Rana scruffed a glove behind to his short ball bugbear. Karthik's premeditated paddle defeated the solitary purpose behind him stepping down from the job, as an ungainly ricochet trimmed the bails off. Andre Russell hammering a six and a four rekindled the glimmer of hope, though it was snuffed out pretty quickly by Jasprit Bumrah who exploited his pet peeve with a well-directed bumper, leaving KKR devoid of any sort of fizz at 61/5 around the halfway juncture. Uber-cool Cummins saves KKR's neck However, Pat Cummins and Eoin Morgan refused to throw in the towel, patching together a counterattack worth 87 to shepherd the men in maroon to presentable waters in terms of the scoreline. The all-rounder enjoyed the luxury of the time to get his eye in, trading singles to begin with before engaging in some calculated risk-reward ploys. Common wisdom would hint towards Morgan torch-bearing the surge, but it was Cummins instead, glazing a barbaric pull off Boult and notching his maiden IPL fifty with a slingshot to the cover fence off Coulter-Nile. Though Morgan leveraged profit in the right-arm's 20th, dumping two massive strikes to relic his bowling economy to a shambolic 4-0-51-1. Rohit-de Kock stand wins half the battle While the majority of KKR's swashbucklers came a cropper, the brash left-right combo of Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock hummed a different tune. The futile adventures of hurling chin music were bonked promptly over the square leg fence besides an assortment of drives and punches whooshing through the carpet. Interspersed between the eloquent strokeplay was a goof-up from the southpaw, but Varun Chakravarthy shelled the immensely tough chance scampering backwards from short fine. The equation had stunted to a low-key 59 off the last ten when pacer Shivam Mavi allowed KKR a little foot in the door, nicking behind Sharma for almost a run-a-ball 35. Hardik adds a dollop of splendour Suryakumar Yadav gift-wrapped his wicket with a silver ribbon and extended it to KKR, picking the wrong ball to sweep and having his stumps tonged. Albeit Hardik Pandya held in store an exquisite garland, as fragnant as it possibly can be, comprising a couple of gun-barrel straight lofts and a bewitching whip off Pat Cummins, whose wicket-drought now stands elongated to five matches. The formalities were done and dusted with a rather anti-climatic nurdle along the turf, bristling MI to their 21st win over KKR in IPL history. Where next from here? Though Pat Cummins delivered the goods with his lesser-known skill tonight, its high time he does justice to the price tag with the ball in the first place. It wouldn't be a cakewalk though, for sure, as browbeaters David Warner and Jonny Bairstow from Sunrisers Hyderabad await KKR in the first of Sunday's doubleheader. MI's juggernaut is operating on rocket fuel and deems potent enough to tyrannize bottom-dwellers Kings XI Punjab later in the evening.

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IPL 2020 | RR vs RCB: Match Preview, Predicted XI & Dream11 Fantasy Picks

The ongoing season of the Indian Premier League is entering into a crucial phase when all matches hold special importance where the fortune of teams hinges on outcome in every match or every ball. The tournament is heading to the end of the fourth week and while some teams have found their best XI whereas others are yet to find the combinations that serve them in the best manner. In the first match of the third weekend with doubleheaders, the Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore will go head to head as battle lines will be drawn between arguably the world’s best two batsmen. The Royal Challengers have shed off their past reputation in the history of the IPL and have shown enough depth in all the departments to get the IPL 2020 campaign on a much better note than previous editions while Royals have shown signs of a muddled team which is being led by management that is not quite sure of the best players who can lead the side in long and consuming tournaments such as the IPL. Both these teams committed a handful of mistakes in their last game and were punished by the opposition. The Royal Challengers are coming to this game after a hammering at hands of KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, and Chris Gayle after the team management held back AB de Villiers against an exaggerated threat of leg spinners while the Rajasthan Royals' could not match up the firepower of Delhi Capitals and were beaten hands down in all the departments. The Royal Challengers will walk on the field to face the Royals with a real sense of purpose after a day when the strategy did not go well for them against Kings XI while Steve Smith’s side has a lot to ponder over the outlook of the side. The inclusion of Ben Stokes has not been able to revive the Royals’ campaign and a lot of the blame has to go to captain Steve Smith and coach Andrew McDonald. Before Stokes’ arrival in the tournament, Smith was opening the inning - a strategy that made the team a top-heavy side with no batsmen capable of turning things around. It was widely believed that Stokes’ entry would make the middle order stronger and the English all-rounder will play the role of a finisher for the Royals. However, they had other ideas and in a bizarre move asked Stokes to open and Smith moved to his slot of number three. The Royals have shown signs of spark and the match against Sunrisers Hyderabad was one of those games when the team had pulled off a miraculous set of performances to clinch the game in their favour but the team had lacked a sustained period of brilliance with the bat or ball. Steve Smith’s struggle with the bat has not helped the case and the Aussie star would hope to turn things around albeit the challenge in front of him in Yuzvendra Chahal and Navdeep Saini is nothing short of monumental. Steve Smith, like he has done in his international career, needs to rise through it to guide the Royals on the path towards playoff. On contrary, Virat Kohli and company need to regroup after a dismal performance against the Kings XI Punjab when there were signs of the old RCB coming back with both on-field performances and off-field tactics. Virat Kohli needs to remind his troops that momentum slips away very quickly in IPL and that they need to be wary of being complacent and not winning games when in good form. Rajasthan Royals vs Royal Challengers Bangalore: Match Details Match Number- 33 Date: 17th October 2020, at 3:30 PM IST, 02.30 PM Local, 10.00 AM GMT Venue: Dubai Broadcast: Star Sports and Hotstar Pitch and Weather report A fresh pitch will be used for the game between the Royals and the Royal Challengers and it will give batsmen the freedom to go for quick runs in the power play. Dubai has appeared to be producing pitches that support stroke playing this season and the match between these two sides can be a run feast if batsmen on both sides can make the most of the conditions that are likely to be on offer. Fielding in the sun is never easy and it will be no different when the captains will walk out for the toss. It’s almost certain that the captain winning the toss will bat first and put the runs on board. Weather conditions during day time will be tough on players with humidity likely to be on a higher side will make players, especially those who will be fielding in the sun, sweat it out for every bit of effort. Team News Rajasthan Royals The Rajasthan Royals have made a lot of shuffling in the playing XI and it has not paid off well both for the team and the players who have been in and out of the side. The team should give players who fielded in the last game a longer rope after they pulled off a brilliant chase just a game before the last one. But, if the team feels like they need to chop and change just one player, the could potentially field Varun Aaron in place of Jayadev Unadkat, who picked up two wickets last game but gave away over 10 rpo. There were rumours about Steve Smith stepping aside and handing over the captaincy to Jos Buttler but there is no official word from either the franchise or Smith himself. Expected XI Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler (wk), Steven Smith (c), Sanju Samson, Robin Uthappa, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia, Jofra Archer, Shreyas Gopal, Jaydev Unadkat/Varun Aaron, Kartik Tyagi Royal Challengers Bangalore After years of turbulence in the team selection and a lot of chopping and changing, the Royal Challengers have shown the maturity of a good and developing team by backing the players to come good even with some minor blip in form. Keeping their IPL 2020 track record in mind, it’s unlikely they will bring any changes to the playing XI but an alarm bell must have started ringing for Mohammed Siraj who had two bad games in a row. Expected XI Devdutt Padikkal, Aaron Finch, Virat Kohli (c), AB de Villiers (wk), Washington Sundar, Shivam Dube, Chris Morris, Isuru Udana, Navdeep Saini, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal Rajasthan Royals vs Royal Challengers Bangalore: Dream11 team and suggestions AB de Villiers, Jos Buttler, Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Riyan Parag, Chris Morris, Ben Stokes, Yuzvendra Chahal, Navdeep Saini, Jofra Archer, Kartik Tyagi Captain: AB de Villiers Vice-captain: Jos Buttler