SRT has won the toss and chosen to field because of some dew. They are going in with the same XI. Mahela says he would have batted anyway. Why do they have a toss in such scenarios? Anyway, news is, Shaun Marsh is back, replacing Sanga.
Sunny G's two favourite batsmen, Mahela and Sachin, are out there for the toss. Sachin wants his to continue with the hard work, Mahela wants his team to bring their A game.
It is the battle of opposites that is the battle between the table toppers and dwellers at the bottom. Mumbai Indians currently leads the table while Kings XI Punjab are languishing at the bottom of the table in the hope of that one turning point win.
The kind of form that MI have displayed so far in the tournament it will look quite impossible for the KXIP to catch up with them. Sachin has turned back the clock to the famous summer of 1998 and many of the experts believe that he is in the best batting form of his life. Sachin needs just eight runs to claim the Orange Cap from Kallis.
Mumbai possess bowlers in Malinga and Z.Khan who can bowl at good pace and also bowl according to the situation. In H.Singh they have a more that handy lower order batsman and also an extremely canny off-spinner.
The Punjab outfit, which has managed to win only one match out of six and that too via a Super over against CSK would be without regular captain Sanga. Sanga is to miss the match after copping a one-match ban for the team's inability to maintain required over-rate for the third time and it could not have come at a worse time for the Mohali franchise.
Already their chances of making the semifinals appear remote and a sixth defeat would dent their hopes further.
Failure of Sanga and Mahela to do something meaningful and the flop show of Yuvraj has meant the team had to depend mostly on the starts provided by England player Bopara and the finish by Irfan Pathan to a large extent.
Re: MI vs KXIP
by Senthil on Mar 30, 2010 07:27 PM
The return of Brett Lee to lead the attack would be one bright spot in an otherwise dismal scenario as S Sreesanth has tended to blow hot and cold while Pathan and Salabh Srivastava can play only support roles.
In 2008 Punjab won the first encounter between the two teams by 66 runs which was more famous for the slap-gate incident between Harbhajan Singh and Sreesanth. In the second encounter the sides played out a thriller with Punjab winning by one run. In the 2009 edition Yusuf Abdulla helped Punjab clinch a last-over thriller. In the second match of the edition Mumbai fought back with an easy eight-wicket win in Centurion.
