IPL 2016: Fantasy Championship guide MI v KKR

Another day and another half-century stand from the celebrated pair of Brendon Mccullum and Dwayne Smith. The pitch was supposed to have some demons in it and it actually had some too but both these power hitters just flung those demons out of the park. The Lions looked set for a score of 200 but that is when Chris Morris decided to roll his magic arm over. His twin strikes halted the scoring rate and the demons in the pitch had a homecoming. None of the middle order batsmen could find a way to get going and despite the strong start, GL had to settle for 172.

Delhi couldn’t have had a worse start, with Quinton de Kock, Sanju Samson, and Karun Nair all playing horrid strokes to find a way back to the dugout. It looked all too familiar for the Daredevils, who have often been bundled out for low scores when chasing a high total but probably Morris wasn’t around during those times. When the total looked well beyond their reach, Morris and Duminy started belting the ball to all parts of the ground. Morris, in particular took a liking to the Lions bowling and started smacking them left, right and center. But in the end, a brilliant 19th over from Praveen Kumar ensured that Morris’ heroics would be limited to just ‘winning hearts’ and not the actual game!

Let’s get to business now!

Mumbai Indians vs Kolkata Knight Riders

Transfer out: Quinton de Kock, Shahbaz Nadeem

Transfer in: Andre Russell, Krunal Pandya/Suryakumar Yadav (uncapped player)

The Wankhede would be making its final appearance in this seasons IPL as the Supreme Court has supported the decision of the Maharashtra High Court to shift all matches out of Maharashtra in wake of the droughts in the state. Whether it was the right decision or not is a discussion for another day, for the time being lets just hope the Wankhede wicket stays true to its inherent nature and provides us with a high scoring thriller.

Now, I already have Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Robin Uthappa and Shakib Al Hasan in my team for this game.

Andre Russell hasn’t been very effective with the ball this season and Gambhir has rotated his three fast bowlers in all games, making it a little uncertain if will get to bowl his quota of 4 overs. Also, with Yusuf Pathan finding some form, Russell could be pushed to number 6 in the batting order and hence I leave him out for this game. But the fact that tempts me to bring him into my team is the fact that KKR play two games in the space of 3 matches and he could go big in at least one of the games (as both the grounds are small ones). Get him in, he is worth the risk.

A lot was expected from the hard-hitting Jos Buttler when the Mumbai Indians in the IPL auction picked him but he hasn’t really set the stage on fire as of now. The fact that he’ll be up against a quality spin bowling attack renders his threat useless, as he is not a very good player of spin.

Mitchell McCleneghan has been good at the death for the Mumbai Indians but I just can’t bring him in because of my team combination and my set of 4 overseas players. Also, I feel that with Russell playing two games in 3 days, he has a higher ‘point providing’ potential than McCleneghan.

For the uncapped player, I go with Suryakumar Yadav if KKR bat first or with Krunal Pandya if Mumbai bat first.

Batting Captain: Robin Uthappa (if KKR bat second)/Rohit Sharma (if MI bat second)

Chasing has been the way to go in IPL 2016 and both these batsmen have performed exceptionally well when chasing a score

Bowling captain: Jasprit Bumrah (if MI bowl first)/Shakib Al Hasan (if KKR bowl first)