The Eden Gardens, which has been the amphitheatre to many a cricketing battle over the years, will see another compelling duel on Saturday when two former champions seeking to prop up their flagging forms meet in what will be their concluding league match of IPL-10.
Kolkata Knight Riders needs the win to ensure that it goes into the knock-out stage as one of the top two teams while the visiting Mumbai Indians will seek to rebound from consecutive defeats and remain the clear leader on points at the end of the league stage.
Immediately after it ensured its play-offs berth, Mumbai Indians has seen a dip in form over the last couple of rounds. The efficiency with which the two-time champion has tackled most of its opponents this season in indicative of the balance the team has attained.
The consistent form of its key players like Kieron Pollard, Lendl Simmons, Mitchell McClenaghan, Jasprit Bumrah and captain Rohit Sharma even in losing causes should keep the visitor buoyant ahead of Saturday’s match.
Special feeling
The venue must feel special to Rohit; he achieved his ODI world record of 264 runs here and it was also here that Mumbai Indians won both its IPL titles.
Last year, Mumbai Indians won both its matches against Knight Riders, and beat them again on the home leg this season.
Knight Riders captain Gautam Gambhir’s first challenge will be to break the statistical hold Mumbai has over his team; the head-to-head record is 14-5, with defeats in the last four encounters.
The emergence of Sunil Narine as a pinch-hitter has contributed in lot of Knight Riders’ wins. Narine, who has the second best strike-rate so far this season, has surprised everyone with his batting ability just when it looked like the ‘mystery’ element of his off-spin bowling is on the wane.
However, the side’s batting seems to rely too heavily on the top four batsmen.
Getting Chris Lynn back from injury is a huge boost for the hosts.
Gambhir led the batting numbers for a considerable while, but his poor returns in the last four matches seem to have affected the team’s prospects a lot.
Both sides will go full-tilt in a game that they will see as a launchpad into the play-offs.
