The season is nearing its business end and the margins for error are understandably diminishing with every game. Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore, both entangled in a mid-table logjam, would hopefully keep that in mind when they clash at the Wankhede on Tuesday.
Both the teams have 10 points each after 10 games and need to win so that they don’t fall back in the race for the playoffs.
The scenario has changed to a great degree from what it was when the two teams had met early in IPL 2023, with RCB bulldozing past Mumbai, thanks to a 148-run opening stand from Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli.
While Faf and Kohli are still scoring runs, RCB has suffered inconsistency because of their fragile middle-order. On days Glenn Maxwell fails to come up with a match-winning knock, RCB look lost, whether batting first or chasing.
Mumbai’s batting, on the other hand, has sprung to life with their middle-order muscle showing its full power and destructive capabilities often. That is expected too with players like Cameron Green, Suryakumar Yadav and Tim David wielding their bats like an executioner’s axe.
But it’s not that Mumbai are without headaches, the biggest of them being captain Rohit Sharma’s poverty of runs. The India skipper has scored only 5 runs in his last four IPL innings and that surely doesn’t help the team. Ishan Kishan though has been batting well at the top of the order.
Mumbai will also like to have the immensely talented Tilak Varma back in their middle order. The left-handed batter missed the last game with injury.
RCB will look for runs from their mighty top order and would hope the Mohammed Siraj-led bowling attack doesn’t have an off day. Mumbai’s bowling will revolve around Jofra Archer’s pace and Piyush Chawla’s guile.
But the Wankhede is usually all about runs. Who will have more of them on Tuesday, Rohit or Kohli?
Today’s match
■ Mumbai Indians vs Royal Challengers Bangalore, 7.30pm, Wankhede, live on Star Sports & Jio Cinema
Samad ‘pays back’
Jaipur: Abdul Samad redeemed himself with his match-winning effort on Sunday, Sunrisers Hyderabad batting coach Hemang Badani said, after the Jammu and Kashmir batter’s 7-ball 17 helped the team close the match against Rajasthan Royals.
The 21-year-old has been with the Sunrisers since 2020 but paid little dividends. On Sunday, as the team needed four off the last ball, Samad smashed a straight six, keeping them alive. Glenn Phillips had brought the team back earlier with a 7-ball 25 towards the target of 215.
“It is a great win for us because it gives us momentum. A few games could have been different for us, especially against KKR in which we needed 9 off the last over,” Badani said. “It will give a lot of belief to guys like Samad as we would have felt he missed out on a couple of times and to have done it here, the next time he will bat differently in a similar situation.”
PTI
