Struggling Kings XI Punjab wait for miracle against Mumbai Indians

Kings XI Punjab, with their Indian Premier League campaign in total disarray, are to take on high-flying Mumbai Indians in their seventh match at the Brabourne Stadium here tomorrow.
     
The Punjab outfit, which has managed to win only one match out of six and that too via a tie-break against another struggling side - Chennai Super Kings - would be without regular captain Kumar Sangakkara against the marauding Mumbai team spearheaded by master batsman Sachin Tendulkar.

Sangakkara is to miss the match after copping a one-match ban for the team's inability to maintain required over-rate for the third time and it could not have come at a worse time for the Mohali franchise.
     
The team, even with match-winners like Sri Lanka captain Sangakkara, his compatriot Mahela Jayawardene and India stalwart Yuvraj Singh, has come a cropper repeatedly in the IPL III.
     
In absence of Sangakkara, who had done precious little in the tournament, the team is to be led by another former Lanka skipper - Jayawardene - and they would be hoping that a change at the helm would also bring about change in their fortunes.
     
Already their chances of making the semifinals appear remote and a sixth defeat tomorrow would dent their hopes further.
     
Failure of Sangakkara and Jayawardene to do something meaningful and the flop show of Yuvraj has meant the team had to depend mostly on the starts provided by England player Ravi Bopara and the finish by Irfan Pathan to a large extent.

These two players have been the pick of the Kings XI team.
     
The return of Brett Lee to lead the attack would be one bright spot in an otherwise dismal scenario as S Sreesanth has tended to blow hot and cold while Pathan and Salabh Srivastava can play only support roles.

The Mumbai team, on the other hand, are on a roll with Tendulkar in supreme touch, with four half-centuries to his credit and the others giving him good support.