Mumbai Indians’ good vibes with Eden Gardens will be bothering host Kolkata Knight Riders as the reigning champion takes on the former title-holder in an interesting IPL-9 match here on Wednesday.
Mumbai Indians has won both its crowns at the Eden and its captain Rohit Sharma has an even sweeter relationship with the ground having scored a century in all formats of the game.
The herculean 264 against Sri Lanka in November 2014, that shattered the world record in the ODIs, is still fresh in the minds of the crowds.
In the IPL, his 109 (2012) and unbeaten 98 (2015) have made him one of the best performers on this ground. All these factors will motivate Mumbai Indians to go for its first win after a disheartening nine-wicket loss against debutant Rising Pune Supergiants in the opening match of this season.
If the records are discounted, then KKR would be drawing inspiration from the thumping start it had against Delhi Daredevils two nights ago.
Captain Gautam Gambhir, who has not played international T20 for quite some time, quietened the doubters with an unbeaten 38 to see his team past Daredevils.
KKR, for the last few seasons, has emerged a consistent performer at home. But in a closely-strung league set-up, the starts could be misleading as was the case last year where Knight Riders missed the play-offs despite being on top of the standings after 12 games.
On the other hand, Mumbai Indians is known to be a slow starter. But, if the previous two seasons are any indication, Rohit’s men are cut out for long tournaments which allow room for recovery.
Gambhir may well think that KKR’s batting wasn’t tested in its first game but the bowling was quite incisive even in the absence of the West Indian off-spinner Sunil Narine, who had to fly home to perform his father’s last rites.
With Brad Hogg and Piyush Chawla returning figures of three for 19 and two for 21, Gambhir will be in a fix whether to change the winning combination in order to accommodate Narine.
The only one to perform for Mumbai Indians in the first match — off-spinner Harbhajan Singh — will again have a lot to do on a wicket he had some memorable performances. The visitors will be hoping that their strong batting line-up — consisting of Rohit, Lendl Simmons, Jos Buttler and Kieron Pollard — comes out firing, to put the team on the winning track.
