IPL 9: Confident KKR ready to challenge defending champions Mumbai

Kolkata Star spinner Sunil Narines presence and a sizzling win against the Delhi Daredevils in their first game of the ninth season should give enough confidence to Kolkata Knight Riders KKR ahead of a tough battle against defending champions Mumbai Indians in an Indian Premier League IPL encounter in Kolkata on WednesdayKolkata Knight Riders players celebrating fall of a wicketNarine who had flown to the West Indies after his fathers death came back to the city to join KKR on MondayThe International Cricket Council ICC has cleared his action but whether he will be drafted into the playing XI at the Eden Gardens against Mumbai remains to be seenThe Knights have had a great start to the tournament In the last game they overwhelmed Delhi by nine wickets after bowling them out for a paltry 98For the men in purple and gold allrounder Andre Russell and chinaman bowler Brad Hogg stole the show with the ball picking up three wickets each They were ably supported by John Hastings 26 and Piyush Chawla 221The chase was comfortable too with skipper Gautam Gambhir scoring an unbeaten 38Mumbai on the other hand had a poor outing in the opener against Rising Pune Supergiants Pune led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni crushed them with nine wickets to spare chasing a low total of 1218Mumbais only notable contribution with the bat came from an unlikely source Harbhajan Singh who top scored with 45 while the famed top order could only manage single digitsBut at the Eden Mumbai would want to turn the tables This has been a happy hunting ground for Mumbai skipper Rohit Sharma and if the likes of Lendl Simmons and Jos Buttler fire KKR would have big problems to deal withThe bowling unit need to pull up their socks too if Mumbai are to win it here on Wednesday Their two strike bowlers Jasprit Bumrah and Mitchell McClenaghan were taken for plenty in the last game and Rohit would not want a repeatKKR would once again look upto the bowlers to deliver like they did last time The pitch does assist the spinners here and the likes of Hogg and Chawla would relish another opportunity to bowl on it It will be interesting to see who gets dropped if Narine gets a gameThe hosts top order has had a good run in the first game but their middle order has not been tested yet and Mumbai would precisely want to do thatMumbai will also take confidence from the fact that Kolkata trail them in the head to head records Of the 16 matches between the two teams Kolkata have won only five contests and lost 11The squadsKolkata Knight Riders Gautam Gambhir captain Kuldeep Yadav Manish Pandey Piyush Chawla Robin Uthappa Sheldon Jackson Suryakumar Yadav Umesh Yadav Yusuf Pathan Sunil Narine Andre Russell Brad Hogg Chris Lynn Morne Morkel Shakib Al Hasan Jaydev Unadkat Ankit Singh Rajpoot John Hastings Jason Holder Colin Munro Rajgopal Sathish Manan Ajay SharmaMumbai Indians Rohit Sharma captain Harbhajan Singh Hardik Pandya Jasprit Bumrah Jos Buttler Kieron Pollard Corey Anderson Lasith Malinga Lendl Simmons Mitchell McClenaghan Marchant de Lange Tim Southee Unmukt Chand Vinay Kumar Parthiv Patel Shreyas Gopal Nathu Singh Jagadeesha Suchith Ambati Rayudu Akshay Wakhare Deepak Punia Jitesh Sharma Kishore Kamath Krunal Pandya Nitish Rana Siddhesh Lad