Punjab Look For Unlikely Playoff

Dharamshala: Having struck some form in the past couple of matches, Kings XI Punjab now face the daunting task of taking on table-toppers and strong title contenders Mumbai Indians on Saturday in a bid to keep their playoff hopes alive in the ongoing Pepsi IPL.

Mumbai are already through to the playoffs along with Chennai Super Kings and the Rajasthan Royals. The fourth spot is still up for grabs and the teams in contention for that are Punjab, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Among the three, Punjab have the weakest chance of making it because they have 14 points from 15 matches against the 16 that RCB and Sunrisers have respectively.

For Punjab to qualify, they would have to hope for favourable results elsewhere but the most important task at first would be to win tomorrow's match against an on-a-roll Mumbai.

And that seems easier said then done given that Rohit Sharma's men are coming into the game with eight back-to-back home wins this season.

Punjab, on the other hand, have gained some confidence after beating the mighty Royal Challengers Bangalore in their previous match after getting the better of a miserably out of form Delhi Daredevils.

Punjab, an erratic side led by Australian wicket-keeping legend Adam Gilchrist, has been enduring a roller-coaster campaign and it would be quite a surprise to see it make the playoff stage.

On the bowling front, pacer Praveen Kumar was exceptionally economical against Delhi while Sandeep Sharma stood out with a three-wicket haul.

Mumbai, meanwhile, don't seem to be putting a foot wrong in a smooth campaign. They turned their home ground into an impregnable fortress and even from Wankhede, they would start outright favourites against Punjab tomorrow.

Teams from:

Mumbai Indians: Ricky Ponting (captain), Abu Nechim Ahmed, Akshar Patel, Aditya Tare (wk), Aiden Blizzard, Ambati Rayudu, Amitoze Singh, Dhawal Kulkarni, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Dwayne Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Harbhajan Singh, Jacob Oram, Jalaj Saxena, James Franklin, Kieron Pollard, Lasith Malinga, Mitchell Johnson, Munaf Patel, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Phil Hughes, Pawan Suyal, Pragyan Ojha, Rishi Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Sachin Tendulkar, Suryakumar Yadav, Sushant Marathe and Yuzvendra Singh Chahal.

Kings XI Punjab: Adam Gilchrist (captain & wk), Mandeep Singh, Luke Pomersbach, David Miller, Manan Vohra, David Hussey, Piyush Chawla, Praveen Kumar, Harmeet Singh, Parvinder Awana, Azhar Mahmood, Bipul Sharma, Siddharth Chitnis, Manpreet Gony, Gurkeerat Mann (wk), Shaun Marsh, Dimitri Mascernhas, Nitin Saini, Sandeep Sharma, Rajagopal Sathish, Sunny Singh and Paul Valthaty.

Match facts
Saturday May 18, 2013 (day/night)
Start time 16:00 local (1030 GMT)