Newly confident Punjab will take a tough task agaisnt Mumbai in the second game on Sunday in Indian T20 League 2020.
Match Timings: Oct 18, 7:30 PM
Team Preview
Punjab got the most important win in their previous game to find the confidence to rebuild their tournament journey. Chris Gayle’s maturity delivered a big relief for Punjab. He took time to get settle and then, smashed the ball out of the park. The combination is slightly better for KL Rahul as their bowling unit is doing very well from last two-three games. Jordan at death and Shami with the new ball is sending the positives. Bishnoi is their best man and Rahul also tried Maxwell to control the runs in the powerplay. Punjab now needs a self-belief to turn around their fortune and win against the strong Mumbai will propel their hopes. 2-3 straight wins from now can change their entire story of failure. Rahul might go ahead with the same XI. It means, Cottrell still needs a rest and Maxwell gets one more game to prove himself.
Meanwhile, Mumbai is outstanding and opponents need to paly out of their skins to defeat them. A strong batting unit and compact bowling attack put them top of the table. Their pace-attack is getting wickets with the new ball and this pressure helps their spinners to control the run-rate. If the acceleration happens, Bumrah-Boult maintains the damage in death-overs. Mumbai lost just two games out of eight, including one defeat in super-over. The winning margins are signifying their dominance over oppositions. In last two games, they got a tough task of chasing and they did it comprehensively. Nathan Coulter Nile will get another game, despite a dull show against Kolkata.
Pitch Report
Dubai’s surface is decent for T20 and it offers help to both batsmen and bowlers. Spinners are in command as the pitch gets slow later the match progress. 160 is a par score on this score and it might trouble opponents while chasing.
Possible XI
Mumbai
Rohit Sharma (c), Quinton de Kock (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Nathan Coulter-Nile/Pattinson, Rahul Chahar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah
Punjab
Chris Gayle, KL Rahul (c & wk), Mayank Agarwal, Nicholas Pooran, Glenn Maxwell, Deepak Hooda, Chris Jordan, Murugan Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh
Key Players
Mumbai
De Cock
Season so far – M: 8, Runs: 269, Avg: 38.42
Trent Boult
Season so far – M: 8, Wickets: 12, Avg: 38.42
Punjab
KL Rahul
Season so far – M: 8, Runs: 448, Avg: 74.66
Mayank Agarwal
Season so far – M: 8, Runs: 382, Avg: 47.75
