It was a comfortable victory for the home team on April 10, when their bowlers did an excellent job by bowling out the Daredevils for a paltry 98, thanks to excellent spells by Brad Hogg and Piyush Chawla, and then Gautam Gambhir and Robin Uthappa made a cakewalk of the chase, thereby giving them the victory by 9 wickets. Playing in their backyard, the team slumped to 96 for 8 in the tournament opener against Rising Pune Supergiants before a Harbhajan Singh blitz helped them to a respectable 121 for 8.
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Narine with 74 IPL scalps from four seasons has been instrumental in Gautam Gambhir leading the Shah Rukh Khan co-owned franchise to titles in 2012 and 2014. Once the openers give them a good start, they have a formidable middle order with stroke-makers who can free their hands.
Moreover, during India’s recent series in Australia, Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma had played the big-bodied Aussie really well. Lendl Simmons is likely to be rested for Corey Anderson, while Nitish Rana could also make the final XI.
Mumbai’s only notable contribution with the bat came from an unlikely source – Harbhajan Singh, who top scored with 45 – while the famed top order could only manage single digits.
Eden Gardens is likely to offer another spinner-friendly track to suit KKR’s attack. Their two strike bowlers, Jasprit Bumrah and Mitchell McClenaghan were taken for plenty in the last game and Rohit would not want a repeat.
Online: IPL 2016 matches air live on ESPN Cricket Pass app for Android, iOS and Roku devices.
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Elsewhere, Harbhajan Singh commented about Mumbai Indians’ last performance. Out of his 111 IPL dismissals so far, 41 have been of opening batsmen. The pitch does assist the spinners here and the likes of Hogg and Chawla would relish another opportunity to bowl on it. It will be interesting to see who gets dropped if Narine gets a game.
