Abu Dhabi: Defending champions Mumbai Indians will take on Kings XI Punjab on Thursday in Abu Dhabi and MI bowling coach Shane Bond is pretty clear that KXIP skipper KL Rahul needs to be kept in check to gain an upper hand in the crucial encounter.


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"KL Rahul has got runs against us in the past, he is a brilliant player. Look we know he is a dynamic player and he scores all through the ground. We also know that he takes his time during the middle overs. So it will be an opportunity for us to create pressure on him if he gets that far in his innings against us. In the end, we cannot allow him to score runs he is strong at. We have a quality bowling attack so we have to put him under pressure. We are confident with our batting lineup, we have scored runs in all our matches, we are aware about the conditions as we have played two matches here," Bond pointed.


Adaptation will be the key and that is exactly what the MI unit is looking to perfect as per Bond.


"Look, I think what we are trying to do is adapt to the conditions. When you turn up in Dubai or Abu Dhabi, you have some idea as to how it will play looking at the history, but the fact is that you have to adapt as quick you can, we have a simple theory, we try to bowl seven metres as fast bowling group and 5 metres as a spin-bowling group. We try to keep it simple, and we also try to adjust as soon as we can," he said.


While many have spoken about executing the yorker and how that should be the go-to-ball at the end of the innings, Bond threw light on why the move can also backfire at times.


"Look, I think yorker is just one of the many balls that a fast bowler has in their armoury, if you look at the pitches we have played on, the square boundaries have been really long so you could argue that the length ball is harder to hit for a six if the wicket has slowed down. It is a tough ball to hit under pressure if you fail in execution you could be hit for a six," he explained.