History with Mumbai, momentum with KKR

Bengaluru: A place in the VIVO IPL 2017 Final will be up for grabs when the Kolkata Knight Riders meet their nemesis Mumbai Indians in Qualifier 2.

MI finished the league season at the top of the table before they stumbled against Rising Pune Supergiant in Qualifier 1.

MI, who’d won nine of their first 11 matches, havelost a bit of momentum in the last week; they have won only one of their last four matches and hence feature in this knockout clash.

There are no reasons to be alarmed; MI will draw inspiration from knowing they took this same route when they won the title in 2013.

They will believe they have what it takes to progress past this hurdle;they have all bases covered, and if they apply themselves well, they should compete.

KKR are in this contest by virtue of their win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Eliminator.

KKR had the opportunity to top the table, but they lost their final league stage fixture against MI and had to settle for fourth place in the standings.

KKR were brilliant – particularly with the ball – against SRH on Wednesday night and will go into this match full of confidence; they restricted a formidable SRH batting line-up to 129, and though they appeared to have pressed the panic button momentarily in the shortened run-chase,Gambhir steered them home calmly.

Teams from:

Kolkata Knight Riders: Robin Uthappa (wk), Chris Lynn, Yusuf Pathan, Gautam Gambhir (capt), Ishank Jaggi, Sunil Narine, Suryakumar Yadav, Piyush Chawla, Umesh Yadav, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Trent Boult, Colin de Grandhomme, Chris Woakes, Darren Bravo, Kuldeep Yadav, Manish Pandey, Sheldon Jackson, Ankit Rajpoot, Rishi Dhawan, Rovman Powell, Sayan Ghosh, Ramsingh Sanjay Yadav

Mumbai Indians: Lendl Simmons, Parthiv Pate l(kw), Rohit Sharma (capt), Ambati Rayudu, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Mitchell McClenaghan, Karn Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Lasith Malinga, Tim Southee, Harbhajan Singh, Vinay Kumar, Nitish Rana, Siddhesh Lad, Jagadeesha Suchith, Jitesh Sharma, Deepak Punia, Saurabh Tiwary, Nicholas Pooran, Mitchell Johnson, Asela Gunaratne, Krishnappa Gowtham, Kulwant Khejroliya, Shreyas Gopal

Stats and trivia

• The two captains - Rohit Sharma and Gautam Gambhir – have dismal records in playoff/knockout stage matches; the former averages 12.31 in 14 playoff/knockout matches while Gambhir averages 16.63 from 9 such matches.
• MI have an outstanding record in IPL matches in Bengaluru; they’ve won 7 of their 9 matches at the venue.
• Mumbai have won 15 of the 20 matches between the sides and won both in current season.

Match facts
Friday, May 19, 2017 (night match)
Start time 2000 local (1430 GMT)