Mumbai Indians vs Kolkata Knight Riders Preview - IPL 2014 Opening Match

IPL Live on Star Sports and Sony Six in India

IPL 2014 begins with a match between IPL 2013 winners facing IPL 2012 winners. Mumbai Indians will lock horns with Kolkata Knight Riders. The venue for this match would be Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi. We would like to let the IPL fans in India know that they can enjoy IPL 2014 live streaming on Star Sports and IPL live telecast on Sony Six and Sony Six HD.

Mumbai Indians are the defending champions and they would certainly wish to retain the title. As we all know there isn't a lot of margin for error in IPL, they would love to stay alive in the IPL with lot of wins. This is the first time, the team would play without Sachin Tendulkar as he retired from all forms of cricket. Mumbai Indians won IPL and CLT20 last year and they are high on confidence. 

Sachin Tendulkar has been named Icon player for the team and he will be present with the team to provide guidance. Michael Hussey who was a part of CSK will now play for Mumbai Indians and this is a big inclusion. Hussey is delighted to be a part of the team which is guided by Sachin Tendulkar. On a lighter note he said he will chew Sachin's ear to learn cricketing stuffs from him.

Rohit Sharma has been an integral part of the Indian team since his good performance in the IPL last year. He would be pumped up to lead his team again to remarkable victories. Coach John Wright is almost a perfectionist and he would certainly have fresh game plans in his mind against Kolkata Knight Riders.

Here is what Harbhajan Singh has to say:

@mipaltan #proud # champions r back# let's rock boys.cammon MI paltan get behind your team
— Harbhajan Singh (@harbhajan_singh) April 14, 2014

Gautam Gambhir who lost his place from the Indian team would be keen to perform better in IPL and regain his place in the national team. To support to his cause his team Kolkata Knight Riders has to do well this time. Their best performance came out in 2012 when they clinched the title in a enthralling final against the Chennai Super Kings. The team would rely a lot on their star captain Gambhir who has played 88 IPL matches and scored 2471 runs. 

The other key players for KKR would be Narine, Kallis and many more to name. They have an interesting inclusion this time Morne Morkel. He bowled exceptionally well for Delhi Daredevils in 2012 and KKR would expect a similar feat from the tall pacer. 

Click here to know more about the team squads featuring in the opening match of IPL 2014. If you would like to view some IPL behind the scenes photos, click here.

Mumbai Indians vs Kolkata Knight Riders Live

Mumbai Indians vs Kolkata Knight Riders Live Streaming

IPL has served us something exceptional since last Saturday. We saw two unbelievable chases from Kings XI Punjab and Chennai Super Kings. But the bigger one was due as Chris Gayle smashed fastest ever century in cricket's history and breaking many such records against Pune Warriors. Time now to shift our focus from Gayle to Sachin. We wish him  a very happy birthday and hope to see a splendid knock from him today against Kolkata Knight Riders.

Checking the points tally as of now, Mumbai is on 6th position with three wins out of six matches and KKR is on 7th position with two wins out of six matches. A win here for KKR will make the numbers even stevens. Overall head to head count completely goes in Mumbai's favour - eight wins out of ten matches!

Mumbai's last match was disappointing as they posted 160 plus on the board just to see the bowlers hammered by Sehwag and a comfortable win Delhi's way. Even Kolkata hasn't seen good matches recently and they would love to register a win at home and move ahead in the points tally.

Can Sachin pull out something special on his birthday today?

Overall the team batting second has done well at the Eden Gardens. So the captain who wins the toss might be tempted to bowl first. But it all depends on the strategies of the captains. Let us hope for some crackers from batting stars like Gambhir and Sachin today.

Ricky Ponting is due for a big knock. He had to bring him down the order in the last match. Rohit Sharma scored well against Delhi to see his team on the losing side. Dinesh Karthik has consistently played well and hopefully Sachin should create some magic on his birthday.

MI vs KKR and DD vs CSK - Matches You Can't Miss

IPL Live Streaming Cricket 2013

As IPL 2012 enters its final stages with the most interesting phase where atleast six teams are battling out to make into the play offs. Delhi and Kolkata have been the best of the lot and are resting comfortably on the top two positions. These two teams will feature in today's matches and the opponents MI and CSK are eager to win and  make their position stronger for top four positions.

1st Match - Mumbai Indians vs Kolkata Knight Riders

If we compare these two teams Kolkata is a better outfit due to their phenomenal form whereas Mumbai is still struggling with inconsistent performances. They suffered a bad loss against Bangalore at home due to the unstoppable Gayle storm. A win here would be a good confidence booster for Mumbai Indians.

Kolkata has not lost a single match since last one month and compared to Delhi they are in a slightly better form as they also defeated Delhi in their last face-off. The man leading this team from the front is Gautam Gambhir. He has scored 457 runs and is one of the leading run scorers this year. Lately he has received a good support from Kallis and McCullum. Bowling wise Sunil Narine is almost unplayable and he claimed 15 wickets so far. Rajat Bhatia has bowled well in the middle overs to restrict the run flow.

For Mumbai, it is of utmost importance that all their batsmen contribute well to score big even if they bat first or second because Kolkata has a good batting line up too. Malinga is doing a brilliant job with the ball but he needs an equally good support from Harbhajan, Munaf Patel and company.

2nd Match - Delhi Daredevils vs Chennai Super Kings

Two time defending champions Chennai Super Kings is still struggling with uncertainties of reaching the next stage. Their batting has disappointed the fans in last three to four matches. Fortunately Morkel and Srikanth came to the rescue in last match and clinched a win from nowhere against Rajasthan Royals. This win helped them to climb up couple of positions in points tally. It is almost a must win for Chennai here against Daredevils.

Delhi managed to defeat Chennai at the Kotla stadium last time when they played each other. Today's match gives Chennai the home advantage if they can capitalise on it. If Chennai bowls first they need to ensure that they don't allow Sehwag, Taylor, Warner and Jayawardene to settle for too long. Chennai are among the good chasers and a low score will fetch them a win.

David Warner smashed a big century in last match and he would be the man to watch alongwith the swashbuckling Sehwag. If these two get going from the start, Chennai's hope would reduce to stay alive in the league. Both the teams have good bowlers who can trouble the opposition batting line ups. This match is certainly going to be a nail biter till the end!