Mumbai Indians, Kings XI Punjab in contest of contrasting fortunes

If ever there was a contest of contrasting fortunes, this is it. At one end are Mumbai Indians, playing musical chairs with Delhi Capitals for the top spot on the IPL 2020 points table. At the other end of the very same table, right at the bottom, are their opponents for Sunday's evening game in Dubai: Kings XI Punjab.

Mumbai are currently on a five-match winning streak and in all, have six wins and two losses from eight games. The Kings XI? Two wins and six losses from their eight matches. Mumbai have tried only 13 players so far, the least by any team. The Kings XI have tried 20, the most by a team in its first eight matches.

Mumbai have been so dominant that their narrowest victory margins so far are 34 runs when batting first and five wickets when chasing. The Kings XI, meanwhile, have managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory on more than one occasion. In their opening game, they failed to score one run from the last three balls against the Capitals before losing in the Super Over. Against Kolkata Knight Riders, they needed 29 from 24 balls with nine wickets in hand but couldn't get over the line.

Does it need saying who start as the favourites?

Rohit Sharma set the platform with a 45-ball 70 before Hardik Pandya and Kieron Pollard took 25 off the final over, bowled by offspinner K Gowtham, to power the Mumbai Indians to 191 for 4. Jasprit Bumrah, James Pattinson and Rahul Chahar then picked up two wickets each to restrict the Kings XI to 143 for 8.

Mumbai Indians: 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Quinton de Kock (wk), 3 Suryakumar Yadav, 4 Ishan Kishan, 5 Hardik Pandya, 6 Kieron Pollard, 7 Krunal Pandya, 8 Nathan Coulter-Nile, 9 Trent Boult, 10 Rahul Chahar, 11 Jasprit Bumrah

Kings XI Punjab: 1 KL Rahul (capt, wk), 2 Mayank Agarwal, 3 Chris Gayle, 4 Nicholas Pooran, 5 Glenn Maxwell, 6 Deepak Hooda, 7 Chris Jordan, 8 M Ashwin, 9 Ravi Bishnoi, 10 Mohammed Shami, 11 Arshdeep Singh