Punjab face Knockout as Mumbai seek to Stabilize

                After their previous encounter against royal challengers Bangalore, both sides Mumbai and Punjab had different results in the crunch  situation. As Mumbai won it convincingly and Punjab lost it marginally, although that result made things easy for Mumbai and tough for Punjab ahead for a knockout scenario against Mumbai on Friday at Visakhapatnam.
               Mumbai fought back persuasively after their poor show against sunrises at the new home, by restricting Bangalore to a par total and later chased with ease. Even though Parthiv’s form  at the top order still remained an concern and making things tough for other top order batsmen with getting out without construction of vital starts.
                Bowling as been impressive against Bangalore Kurnal becoming an vital contributor with the ball in very game and making Haribajan’s role easy in the team.  While another win will get them closer to playoffs in the top.4 and they see it as an perfect opportunity to make it against misfiring Punjab.
             On the other side of the coin Punjab performance as been transformed largely after the modification in captaincy, but they couldn’t get over the line in the crunch situation against Bangalore in their 1 run loss. While batting yet to fire as an unit and the good patches with the bat not helping their cause.
             Bowling as been inspiration to the batsmen the way they responded at crunch situations even with par totals on the board, meanwhile at this stage where every match is a knockout contest with only 6 points on the table and a loss will be curtains to take part in playoffs.
              The pitch at Visakhapatnam  showing it’s true color with slowness of the pitch and making things tougher for batsmen and spinners have huge roles to play with an another low scoring contest on the cards.
             Meanwhile the new home posed some questions for Mumbai and they will look to answer them against Punjab, as the contest determines adaptability of batsmen on the slowing track.