Mumbai Indians (MI) will hope that the rain Gods will do them a favour and stay away, as the weather has not been very promising since Thursday in Visakhapatnam. According to a report of TOI, it drizzled on Thursday evening and it is likely to be cloudy again on Friday.
Mumbai Indians, who are trying to stay in the race to reach the IPL 2016 playoff stages, will want to have a full game of cricket and win it by a good margin against Kings XI Punjab at the ACA-VDCA Stadium in Visakhapatnam.
Even if the match happens, Mumbai Indians will know they will have a battle on their hands, as KXIP have been playing some good cricket in their past few matches.
However, the last time these two sides met in IPL 2016, Mumbai Indians got the better of KXIP by 25 runs. KXIP will look to avenge that defeat on Friday.
Mumbai Indians are coming into this after an inspiring win over the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), and they will look to carry on with the momentum.
One of the areas that the Mumbai Paltans need to work on is their opening partnership. Parthiv Patel has lost some form and Rohit has just not been able to play those big innings often enough. He has been their best batsman in IPL 2016, however. Therefore, being the leader of the pack and the best batsman of his team, Rohit has to be more consistent.
"I think the place where we are struggling is, our opening partnership. If we get it right, more people can play with freedom. It has not been happening since quite a few games. In the game against SRH, the same thing happened and we lost a few more wickets. My job this tournament has been to make sure we don't lose any wickets, and lay a platform for the team," Rayudu was quoted as saying by the official website of the Mumbai Indians.
Meanwhile, KXIP have been depending on their Indian players a lot. Their foreign recruits need to step up to the occasion. It is not like that they are not capable. In fact, they have world-class players in their ranks and they just need to click at the right time. Also they have a faint mathematical chance of making it to the playoff stages of IPL 2016.
Vijay has to emulate his form with the bat against the Mumbai Indians. The Indian bowlers in the side – Mohit Sharma, Sandeep Sharma, Axar Patel, Anureet Singh and KC Cariappa -- have taken the majority of the load, and they need to be at their best to outclass this Mumbai outfit. For the bowlers to do well, the batsmen need to back them up by scoring runs.
Where to Watch Live
Mumbai Indians vs KXIP IPL 2016 match is scheduled for an 8 p.m. IST (3.30 p.m. BST, 10.30 a.m. ET) start. Below are the TV and Live Streaming options:
India: TV: Sony Six,Sony Six HD, Sony ESPN, Sony ESPN HD and Sony Max. Live Streaming: Starsports.com and Hotstar.
UK and Ireland: TV: Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports HD1. Live Streaming: Watch Sky Sports and Sky Go.
Middle East and North Africa: TV: OSN Sports Cricket. Live Streaming: OSN Cricket Play.
South Africa and Sub Saharan Africa: TV: Supersport. Live Streaming: Supersport Live Video.
USA: TV: ESPN. Live streaming: Watch ESPN.
Canada: TV:Sportsnet. Live Streaming: Watch Sportsnet.
International (ROW): Cricketgateway.
