NEWS
Follow UsMumbai Indians (MI) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have made contrasting starts to the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021. While defending champions MI suffered a two-wicket loss at the hands of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), KKR on the other hand edged past Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by 10 runs in their season opener.
The contest between KKR and MI has been the most one-sided contest in IPL history, with the latter having come out on top on 21 occasions, while the Kolkata-based franchise have won just six. MI play their first five matches in Chennai and Brian Lara feels that they will not be happy with that, but backs them to maintain their healthy record against KKR.
“It has been an intriguing tournament so far. You feel there is a distance between Mumbai Indians and the rest of the teams, but I'm not seeing it. They're a great outfit. I'm not seeing the distance. I think it's going to be a much closer contest especially as I sense that Mumbai Indians wouldn't be too happy playing at Chepauk for all these matches. They are accustomed to little bit of pace, little bit of bounce and ball coming on to the bat,” Lara said in a face-off against Criclytics, Cricket.com’s AI-driven prediction platform.
“I feel that they're not the happiest bunch where they're located. They have to get off the mark. I believe that they are so good and so professional that they will realise two defeats out of two is not what they want. So, for me Mumbai Indians is going to be getting up in this encounter,” he added.
Lara was extremely pleased with the way Nitish Rana and Rahul Tripathi timed the ball during their knocks in the first game against SRH and feels it is the form of the Indian contingent that will be crucial for a team to win the tournament.
“First of all, the best IPL teams are teams that are carrying very good India batsmen and Indian bowlers. They do have that. In terms of bowlers, they have Prasidh Krishna, who you saw last night. What was more impressive was the likes of Nitish Rana and Rahul Tripathi coming to the party. If they're going to do it consistently I don't know. They seem to be batsmen that love the low bounce of the pitches.
"They might relish it, playing continuously in Chepauk. So, for me, you need that combination - Good Indian batsmen, good Indian bowlers. The international players are going to play their parts. You look the winners - the local guys are really the ones who perform at most critical times,” the batting great said on Cricket.com’s Man vs Machine.
Quinton de Kock is expected to return to the XI for MI, after missing the first match as he was completing his mandatory seven-day quarantine. He is expected to make it back into the XI in place of Chris Lynn, who top-scored for MI in the first game, scoring 49 – which is something that Lara believes is a tad unfair. De Kock scored over 500 runs in the previous season and was an integral cog in MI winning their fifth IPL title.
Speaking of de Kock’s value to the team, Lara said, “He is very important. For one thing, it is the left and right combination. You can't fault Chris Lynn for the performance. He performed very well. He is probably going to be the unlucky person that's going to miss out.
“Now that de Kock is back, it's natural to have him in for Lynn. Performance-wise, I don’t think they’re going to get anything different. You're going to have someone who is very confident. But what it does is it gives Rohit Sharma that left-right combination that he wants and he will enjoy as the opening partner as well.”