Two teams – Deccan Chargers and Delhi Daredevils – have dominated the tournament thus far, while the two that take on each other in Durban on Wednesday have both emerged strong contenders. Punjab Kings XI overcame their rain-affected defeats in their first two games to win the next two quite comfortably, marking a trend similar to their performance last season. Mumbai have been more impressive, putting behind them the blip against table-toppers Deccan, to grind Kolkata Knight Riders into submission with a 92-run win in their previous game.

Both teams appear to have rectified their faults that plagued them in the early stages. The fast bowling duo of Irfan Pathan and Yusuf Abdulla recovered well after Duckworth-Lewis didn’t give them much of a chance in Punjab’s two losses, and have since shared 12 wickets between them. Abdulla’s three-wicket burst proved decisive in enabling his team to defend 139 against Rajasthan Royals in their last game, and Pathan, adding to his impressive bowling, has been consistent with the bat. In the batting line-up, Ravi Bopara and Kumar Sangakkara have proved instrumental in their team’s victories, though Karan Goel, after three disappointing outings, will look to make a more significant contribution.

Things fell into place perfectly for Mumbai in their thumping win against Kolkata. Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya proved a lethal opening combination, and despite the middle-order wobble, the bowlers, led by Lasith Malinga and Dwayne Bravo, who’ve shared 15 wickets in three completed games, took little time to skittle out the opposition. The form of Shikhar Dhawan, who averages 12.33, remains a concern, but the sheer ease with which they knocked off Kolkata, and the consistency of their star players, gives them the edge going into Durban.

20th Indian Premier League Cricket Match between Mumbai Indians v Kings XI Punjab is scheduled at Durban on 29th April from 12.30 pm local time (11:00 GMT). Live Cricket Match and Hasan Online Sports will publish links to watch free online cricket match streaming and embed media players from different sources for free live streaming.

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Mumbai Indians is a cricket team in the Indian Premier League. The team is led by Sachin Tendulkar, who is also the Icon Player for the team. The team is coached by Pravin Amre, the former manager of the Indian Cricket Team and is owned by India’s biggest conglomerate, Reliance Industries, through its 100% subsidiary Ratipriya Trading.

History
Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) purchased the rights for the Mumbai franchise of Indian Premier league for a total of $111.9 million during the auction on January 24, 2008. The RIL bid has made the Mumbai Indians the most expensive franchise in IPL, and hence won the right to hold the semi-finals and the final in Mumbai. The team was unveiled on the 17th of April, 2008 in Mumbai.

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In 1968, Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi’s men triumphed by eight wickets in Wellington to take a 2-1 lead. A win in the next Test sealed what is still India’s only Test series win in New Zealand. On Friday, MS Dhoni (or perhaps Virender Sehwag) will lead his charges at the Basin Reserve in pursuit of a victory that would end a 41-year drought in New Zealand. The Indians had an opportunity to close out the series in Napier but instead they had to produce a tremendous batting performance spanning more than two days to save their 1-0 lead.

New Zealand bounced back admirably from a thrashing in the first Test to stretch India at McLean Park. They dominated the first three days: the batsmen answered Daniel Vettori’s request to bat 120 overs by scoring 619 in 154.4 before the bowlers secured a 314-run lead. After enforcing the follow-on on the third evening, they were thwarted by India’s batsmen who were determined not to repeat their first-innings mistakes on the most placid of pitches. It was hard to say who held the upper hand at the end of the Test. Had it been a boxing match, like Iain O’Brien said, New Zealand would have won on points, but the fact was that they could only take 14 Indian wickets despite one of their best efforts.

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JP Duminy, the South Africa batsman, has admitted he is still pinching himself to make sure he has been bought by an IPL franchise for US$ 950,000, and says he is now looking forward to pick up some tips this month from Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya, his Mumbai Indians team-mates, who he looked up to as a young boy.

The IPL opens on April 18 in Cape Town’s Newlands, Duminy’s home ground, with a match between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings. And Duminy, who will turn 25 four days before the tournament starts, knows he could possibly become the first South African player to take the field for the Indian Twenty20 league in South Africa.

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Pravin Amre, the former Indian batsman, has been appointed assistant coach of the Mumbai Indians for the second season of the IPL. Amre fills in the breach left after the departure of Lalchand Rajput, who stepped down for “personal” reasons, walking out of his three-year contract. Amre’s signing is part of the ongoing hiring process at the Mumbai franchise, which recently appointed the former South African captain Shaun Pollock as a mentor.

Amre, who coached the Mumbai Ranji team to two trophy victories in the last three years, said he took the offer from Mumbai Indians because it would offer him international exposure. “With my experience as the Mumbai coach I will be acting as the bridge between the domestic players and the coaching staff, mainly Pollock,” Amre said.

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