Mumbai Indians v Kolkata Knight Riders betting preview: Rohit Sharmas team can keep IPL dream alive
Mumbai Indians are still alive in the Indian Premier League after beating high-flying Kings XI Punjab in their last outing.
They will have to win all of their remaining games, however, to qualify for the play-offs and Kolkata Knight Riders represent a stern test.
They still have plenty of fans in the match odds market, though. The layers cant separate the two. Bet365, Coral, Betfair Sportsbook and William Hill all go 10-11 the pair.
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On league standings that has to represent a surprise. Mumbai are fifth with three wins from nine and Kolkata are third with five wins from nine.
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Although there doesnt seem much in it Kolkata have been consistently more impressive.
It is not unusual for Mumbai, the defending champions, to get themselves into a terrible hole. But just because they have scrambled out before, should have no bearing on whether they can do it again.
Pick any team sport you like but the crew who finally decide to turn it on after a spell of taking it easy rarely get rewarded.
Mumbai did turn it on against Kings, thats for sure. They picked off the Kings batting, impressively keeping KL Rahul and Chris Gayle, the blitzers, quiet.
And from there the job was done considering Kings have a weak middle order.
In a chase of 175 they had some nervy moments until a late assault of 56 from 21 balls by Krunal Pandya and Rohit Sharma got them home with time to spare.
The balance of their XI is vastly superior now to what it was at the start of the tournament.
Weve made our peace with the fact they lack an international spinner of repute but Mayank Markande has done superbly. With JP Duminy and Ben Cutting at Nos 7 and 8 respectively they have a long batting line-up.
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Kolkatas weakness is with the ball. They have a tendency to go round the park. They are also not so adept at late order acceleration.
Mumbai have probably left it too late but they are worth the risk at the odds to keep their dream alive for one more game at least.
MORE: Eoin Morgan names Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni and Jofra Archer in his dream IPL team
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