Former champions Mumbai Indians take on last year's runners-up Kings XI Punjab at the Wankhede Stadium in an IPl match here on Sunday in a game that promises plenty of action while offering a chance for both teams to get into winning ways after losses in their lung-openers.
While MI snatched defeat from the jaws of victory against defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders by going down by one run, the KXIP lost their way in chasing a none-too-difficult target against Rajasthan Royals in Pune on Friday.
The Punjab side would be more battle weary than the well-rested home team going into Sunday's clash, but do have the wherewithal to put aside their opening match blues and put it across MI after two straight losses at this venue.
KXIP had beaten MI by 6 wickets in 2012 at Wankhede, but suffered back-to-back losses in 2013 (4 runs) and last year (5 wickets), and thus have a chance to come out trumps again on a track which is expected to offer bounce and some turn. In their opening games, both the teams recovered from poor starts and would be hoping for some stability at the top-order on Sunday.
Mumbai captain Rohit Sharma (in pic), who has all the strokes in the book, made a superb 98 not out off just 65 balls against KKR at the Eden Gardens and had splendid support from New Zealand all-rounder Corey Anderson (55 not out in 41 balls) that bailed out MI from a poor 37/3.
The home team would expect the likes of Aaron Finch, Aditya Tare and Ambati Rayudu to contribute more tomorrow than what they did in Kolkata. In bowling too, MI would like a better show from their experienced spin duo of Harbhajan Singh and Pragyan Ojha, who went for a lot of runs against KKR, and from their death-bowling specialist lasith Malinga who was carted for sixes by Suryakumar Yadav.
Malinga and West Indian Kieron Pollard have been the two constants as their two overseas picks in the playing elevens in IPl over the last few years, leaving MI to juggle around with the rest of foreigners to fill up the other two spots.
Anderson seems to have cemented his place with his power-packed batting last season and has impressed in the opening game, leaving just one spot to be filled in. The loss of Australian World Cup-winning pacer Josh Hazlewood, who has pulled out of IPl without playing a game citing exhaustion after a long season, has reduced MI's options.
For the record, Rohit became only the second player after Chennai Super King's Suresh Raina to complete 3,000 runs in IPl when he got stranded two short of a coveted 100 against KKR.
He has scored 1170 runs from 45 games for the now-defunct Deccan Chargers and then has hit a further 1831 runs in 68 games after switching over to MI. Punjab, on the other hand, are relying on their home-grown talent in bowling — especially with the new ball — with back-up extra fire-power provided by Australia's seasoned and aggressive pacer Mitchell Johnson.
Sandeep Sharma has been impressive for Kings XI in the past seasons and bowled well in tandem with Anureet Singh. But they have limited options in spin bowling and India-capped left-arm bowler Axar Patel is expected to lead the charge in this department.