IPL 2021 Match Prediction: Punjab Kings V Mumbai Indians. 17th Match. Who Will Win?

The 17th match of the IPL 2021 is upon us, and it will see the Punjab Kings (PBKS) take on the Mumbai Indians (MI) at Chennai. The MI are the favourites to lift the title again, but they have gotten off to a pretty average start, with two wins and two losses from their opening four games. The PBKS, on the other hand, have gotten off to a very bad start and sit second from bottom in the table with three defeats in their first four matches.

What is our IPL Prediction for this match?

Well, read on and find out.

IPL Team Preview: Punjab Kings

In our previous PBKS prediction, we said that the conditions in Chennai are not really suited to the batsmen that they have, and it seems that we were proven right as they were all out for 120 with 2 balls to spare.

Their top 6 batsmen, which includes the likes of KL Rahul, Chris Gayle, and Nicholas Pooran managed a measly 53 runs between them. There is no doubt that their batsmen have been underperforming in this tournament, and the fact that this next game of theirs is also in Chennai does not bode too well for them or their supporters. Their batsmen like it when there is pace on the ball, but this is something they are not going to see much of at Chennai.

Their supporters will be hoping that they get used to the pace of the wicket quickly, or their hopes of reaching the play-offs will disappear over the horizon before the tournament has really got going.

Although they had a total on the board that was never going to win them the game, it was still a good chance to see what their bowlers could do on a bowling-friendly wicket, and those associated with the PBKS will be somewhat content with what they saw. Jonny Bairstow scored 63 and helped his side to a 9-wicket win, but three of the bowlers bowled 12 overs and conceded just 66 runs.

Fabian Allen, as we predicted in our last prediction, came into the team for this match, and he was the pick of the bowlers with 1 wicket for 22 runs from his 12 overs.

IPL Team Preview - Mumbai Indians

The bookies have MI as one of the favourites to lift the IPL trophy, but they are going to have to start performing much better if they are going to be able to defend their title.

On Tuesday they took on the Delhi Capitals and lost their second game of the tournament, meaning that they have just a 50%-win percentage. So far in this tournament, they have relied on their really good bowling attack to help them out of tricky situations, but even their quality attack could do little to defend a low score of 137. This was about 15-20 runs below par, which was shown when the DC chased it down with the best part of an over to go.

Rohit Sharma has found his form and he smacked 44 runs from 30 balls, but the likes of Quinton de kock, Hardik Pandya, and Ishan Kishan have been struggling. The MI batsmen could not deal with the bowling of Amit Mishra, who picked up 4 wickets for just 24 runs from the 4 overs that he bowled.

When it was their time to bowl, Trent Boult and Jayant Yadav showed their quality, going for just 48 runs in their 8 overs. Jasprit Bumrah and Rahul Chahar did not bowl badly, but the batsmen did not put the runs on the board that were needed to win the game.

Toss Prediction

The team that wins the toss in Chennai will have no hesitation in choosing to bat first. From the last six matches, the team that has batted first at Chennai has gone on to win the match 5 times out of 7. This shows that there is some type of advantage to be had from batting first on this wicket.

Pitch and Conditions

The conditions at Chennai suit those batsmen that do not mind pace off the ball. A batsman that is able to use their feet well is one that should be able to succeed on this wicket. However, any batsman that just stands there and tries to hit the ball as hard and as far as they will struggle. What we have seen so far is that runs can be scored early on in an innings, but it gets harder as the innings progresses. A par score on this wicket is somewhere between 150 and 160.

Our Punjab Kings v Mumbai Indians Betting Tips

The MI have not been playing as well as everyone expected, but we still believe that they will win this match quite comfortably. The PBKS batsmen showed in their last match that they will struggle in these conditions, and the MI bowling attack is much better than the one that bowled them out for 120 in their previous game. The MI have a better overall team and we fully expect them to get back to winning ways on Friday.

Our match prediction:Mumbai Indians to win the 17th match of the IPL 2021.