IPL 2018: Match 37, Mumbai Indians vs Kolkata Knight Riders – Expectation vs Reality

The ongoing season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is witnessing teams fighting tooth and nail to make it to the playoffs. With the group stage of the tournament fast drawing to a close, every team would be expecting to win and to win big! At this juncture, all-round good performances with the bat, ball and in the field is of utmost importance for each and every team.

Sunday(April 6)’s first encounter will find two of the most successful sides in the history of the IPL take on each other in a high-octane clash. Mumbai Indians(MI) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will face off in their first encounter of the season, at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. Before the real action starts, let’s take a sneak peek at what we’re expecting from this high-octane encounter while we wait for the reality to unfold.

Kieron Pollard making a comeback into the Mumbai side

In the last game against the Kings XI Punjab (KXIP), Kieron Pollard had had to sit out to make way for his Caribbean teammate, Evin Lewis into the team. Although Mumbai won the encounter, things would’ve been different had Hardik Pandya not stepped on the gas pedal in the latter half of the innings. MI would like to avoid any such risks going into the game against KKR as it’s a must-win scenario for them.

As a result, Pollard can be expected to make a comeback into the team. Pollard can be destructive with the bat down the order and that’s just the kind of stability MI needs. Further, the mighty Windies cricketer can bowl a fair bit and can provide the skipper, Rohit Sharma with an extra pace option, if required.

Robin Uthappa to play that one big inning

Robin Uthappa has consistently been one of the best batsmen for the KKR side and his blistering knocks have helped them seal more matches than one. However, this time around, Uthappa has been unable to convert his knocks into something substantial in spite of having gotten to quite a few fine starts. Sunday’s encounter might just be his day.

KKR will look to rake in a victory to ensure they stay strong in the race for a playoff berth. Uthappa has scored four 30+ knocks in the current season, painfully falling short of his first half-century of IPL 2018 by just 2 runs against the Rajasthan Royals (RR). Considering that the stylish batsman cannot be quieted for long, we can expect some fireworks from his against the Mumbai Indians.

Here’s the reality right after the match..

Surya (Sun) shines on Mumbai

After losing the toss, Mumbai got off to a good start as the openers did a good job and added 91 runs. Suryakumar Yadav was exceptional once again and scored his 4th half-century of the season. But Mumbai lost their way badly after that and could only post the total of 181 runs courtesy some hitting by Hardik Pandya in the death overs who has risen to the occasion at the right time for his time.

Uthappa plays a big inning but only in vain

As mentioned in the expectations part above, Robin Uthappa played a big knock and finally scored his first fifty of the season. But his wicket proved to be the turning point of the match as Nitish Rana also was in the hut soon to give a sniff to the defending champions. Though the skipper Dinesh Karthik tried hard in the death overs but he was left stranded as Mumbai bowlers didn’t give him any chance with some brilliant captaincy from Rohit Sharma as they managed to keep themselves alive in the tournament.