Match facts
Tuesday, March 30Start time 2000 (1430 GMT)
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Big picture
It's a clash of the 'opposites'. With five wins and one loss, Mumbai Indians are in pole position, led by Sachin Tendulkar, who's in imperious touch with the bat. Swap those figures in the 'won' and 'lost' column and you have Kings XI Punjab's woeful campaign so far.It's hard to look for positives when you've lost five games out of six, your stars aren't performing, the match referee slaps a hefty fine for slow over-rates and bans the captain for a game. Punjab are hurting for more reasons than one, and they will go into tomorrow's game at the Brabourne Stadium without their regular captain, Kumar Sangakkara. His best mate Mahela Jayawardene will take over tomorrow, hoping to script a turnaround and reclaim the sort of consistency which took them to the semi-finals in 2008.
The fact that they've used four opening combinations in six games indicates the insecurity at the top. They could have tried something different by promoting Jayawardene to open. It may be recalled that Jayawardene opened with great success in the Inter-Provincial Twenty20 competition in Sri Lanka which preceded the IPL, scoring 91 off 49 balls in the final for Wayamba. Not many may be aware that it's a role he enjoys, but captains prefer him in the middle order.
It's all the more perplexing because Sangakkara witnessed, first hand, the ease with which Jayawardene batted in Sri Lanka, and a similar promotion in the IPL could have worked. Whether Jayawardene promotes himself or not remains to be seen, but on the bright side, Punjab will give a red-carpet welcome to the face of their 2008 success - Shaun Marsh. The Australian, who missed last season due to hamstring injury, has arrived in India and should walk in to the line-up.
According to Jayawardene and coach Tom Moody, the pre-match chatter has been about momentum and doing the little things right. Here's what Moody had to say: "The thing that positive momentum gives you is to go out there and play without fearing failure. That is what the good teams do at the moment. Last night Harbhajan gave Mumbai Indians the total they felt would win them the match. In a period of negative momentum they would have never got the total they have got and would have been bowled out for 130."
It's that fighting spirit that defined Mumbai's latest win on Sunday. At 119 for 7 in the 17th over against Deccan Chargers, they were headed towards an insipid total but Harbhajan Singh changed all that with an 18-ball 49. His innings shut Deccan out of the game and gave Mumbai self belief when they took the ball. Punjab have enough players with ability. All they need is some confidence.
Form guide (most recent first)
Kings XI Punjab LLWLLMumbai Indians WWWLW
Team talk
For Punjab, Marsh comes in as the overseas replacement for Sangakkara, and Juan Theron, the South African medium pacer, will also play. If they retain Brett Lee, then Ravi Bopara may have to sit out for Theron. Assistant coach Trevor Penney has said that Sreesanth has been left out of the fifteen as they've opted to pick their squad on a match-by-match basis. Yuvraj Singh is nursing a sore wrist, but he's likely to be fit for tomorrow.Mumbai, on the other hand, have no injuries and should go in with the same line-up.
Previously…
Punjab 3 Mumbai 1
Mumbai have a score to settle. In their first meeting last year , in Durban, Yusuf Abdulla helped Punjab clinch a last-over thriller. Few would have given them a chance after they managed just 119. Despite Duminy's composed fifty, Mumbai fell short by three runs. But Mumbai fought back with an easy eight-wicket win in Centurion. In 2008, they played out a thriller in Mumbai , with Punjab winning by one run. Punjab won the first ever encounter between the two teams by 66 runs.
Prime numbers
In the spotlight
Yuvraj Singh and Irfan Pathan: The Indian stars had a forgettable outing against Kolkata Knight Riders when a lot was expected of them. Irfan is a useful floater in the batting line-up but he's in the team primarily for his bowling. After a decent start, he leaked 21 runs off his final over and Punjab had already lost the mental battle. Yuvraj got going with a glorious straight driven six but when he attempted another massive hit, perished to a fine catch.
Yorkers: Mumbai have the bowlers in Lasith Malinga and Zaheer Khan to crush toes at raw pace. That tactic proved effective against Kolkata, where they managed to keep the runs down. Punjab will have to be prepared for a barrage of yorkers.
The chatter
"Honestly, there is no disunity. We can pinpoint quite a few places where it is going wrong but in a team environment it is all momentum. We had good starts at the top of the order, but none of us continued to bat. You see lot of the top teams playing consistently you see one or two guys batting consistently at least till the 15th over. We haven't done that.."Jayawardene assures that all is well off the field, and they're problems are purely cricketing
Kanishkaa Balachandran is a sub-editor at Cricinfo
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