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Smarting from losses in their previous games, Mumbai Indians (MI) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) will be hoping to get back to winning ways when they face off against each other in the 14th match of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2016 at the Wankhede stadium on Wednesday (April 20). Mumbai Indians, who are yet to win a single game at home this season, have already suffered three losses - two in home games - while their sole victory so far came against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). The match will be Mumbai's penultimate game at Wankhede, with the IPL games being moved out of Maharashtra in May. RCB, who will be playing their first away game this edition, have a win and a loss apiece.
Mumbai's insipid batting has meant that the defending champions are languishing at the bottom of the table. The top-order is to blame for the poor showing in their defeats so far and skipper Rohit Sharma had no qualms in admitting that after their recent loss against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). "We did not score enough runs in all the three games that we lost. The only game we won, we chased 180-plus and one of the batsmen batted through the innings," Rohit said, stressing that the top order has been a let-down.
While the likes of Ambati Rayudu and Krunal Pandya have put on a couple of impressive shows, losing early wickets in most of their games has resulted in lack of good platforms for the middle order to capitalise. The early wobbles have left them looking at consolidating the innings more often than not.
Meanwhile, the Mumbai Indians bowlers, especially their overseas seamers, have fought hard and come up with good performances despite not having great totals to defend. Mitchell McClenaghan has been the pick of the bowlers and has spearheaded the attack well in the absence of Lasith Malinga. His New Zealand pace-bowling colleague, Tim Southee, looked a touch rusty in his first two matches before hitting the straps by registering his best IPL figures (3-24) against SRH. Meanwhile, the likes of Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya haven't made much of an impact, while Harbhajan Singh has been expensive in his last couple of outings. They will have to pull up their socks as the margin for error against RCB's star-studded batting line-up is pretty minimal.
The last time Mumbai Indians played against RCB at Wankhede, the bowlers were taken to the cleaners by an AB de Villiers's 360 degree master-class and a record 215-run stand between the South African and Virat Kohli. Come Wednesday, Mumbai will be wary of these two, who are in red-hot form having registered two back-to-back fifties apiece. That RCB have the best batting line-up in the tournament is a well-known fact and they proved just that when they posted a massive 227 against SRH in their opening game, with the likes of Shane Watson and Sarfaraz Khan also coming good with the bat. They looked on course to a similar total against Delhi Daredevils, but they could not come up flourishing finish to their innings, and Kohli attributed it to some tight bowling from Delhi as much as lack of execution from the batsmen.
In the bowling department, Watson has been doing a fine job, as has Parvez Rasool to an extent, but there is huge scope of improvement when it comes to the rest of the bowlers. Adam Milne, Sreenath Aravind and David Wiese, who all played one game each, have turned out to be expensive, while Harshal Patel and Yuzvendra Chahal have also leaked runs. Although it could be said that the pitches at the Chinnaswamy stadium were loaded heavily in favour of the batsmen, the same might also be the case at Wankhede, which means that the bowlers would have to be as disciplined.
When: MI vs RCB, 14th Match - April 20 at 20:00 IST
Where: Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai
What to expect: A high of 32 degree Celsius and humidity close to 70%. In the previous two games at Wankhede, Mumbai Indians batted first and struggled quite a bit on wickets that had some assistance for the bowlers early on. If a similar pitch is on offer for the upcoming game, toss might play an important factor. Dew is also likely to play a part in the later stages.
Team News:
Mumbai Indians:
While the bowling unit looks a bit settled, batting is where Mumbai Indians are facing plenty of issues. The injury to Lendl Simmons has hurt the batting combination of the two-time champions, who have struggled to identify the right positions for the batsmen. Martin Guptill, who played against SRH in the place of Kieron Pollard, did not have a great IPL debut, while Jos Buttler, barring his knock against KKR, hasn't been at his best in his maiden IPL campaign. Rayudu's promotion to Number 3 appeared a good move, but Mumbai Indians haven't hit upon the ideal combination yet.
Pollard suffered a bout of food poisoning, which kept him out for the previous game. Ricky Ponting, the MI coach, mentioned that he is fit for this game, but he also hinted that Guptill is likely to retain his place and that Rohit would, in all likelihood, bat down the order. Meanwhile, Hardik Pandya's form hasn't been all that great and MI could look at bringing in an extra batsman.
Royal Challengers Bangalore:
Kohli and the think-tank do not have too many problems as far as the batting is concerned as they seem to have identified their batting order. However, they will be without Chris Gayle, who is flying back home for the birth of his child. This means that Watson could partner Kohli at the top of the order while Travis Head, the Australia batsman, could be handed his IPL debut.
It's the bowling that has been giving them a headache or two, and in the absence of Mitchell Starc, RCB do not have that player who can double up as their wicket-taker and a containing option. They have already tried out Adam Milne and David Wiese, with both options not working as well as they would have liked. Aravind, who had replaced Stuart Binny, also did not have a good outing in the last game and it remains to be seen if RCB revert to the bowling combination they had for their first game.
Did you know:
AB de Villiers averages 60.60 and has a strike rate of 157.81 for RCB against MI in IPL with one century.
Teams chasing have won 11 out of 13 T20s in Wankhede this year. In this edition of IPL, teams chasing have won 11 out of the first 12 matches.
In his last 10 T20s, Hardik Pandya has managed 38 runs at a strike rate of 82.86 and has taken six wickets at an economy rate of 10.41 in 25 overs.
Quotes:
Our batting hasn't been good enough. The guys are aware that they haven't been playing good enough. We have been able to make comebacks in few games but we haven't been able to dominate the game from the outset. That's what we want to do in the next game. And if we can do that against RCB who are a very good side then hopefully the boys can take confidence from that: Ricky Ponting
I am excited to play here. I wish I don't get a chance as I want our top order, which is in good form, to do the damage. But if I do get a chance then I will play according to the situation. Senior players like Virat Kohli and Gayle have given me inputs and have advised me: Sarfaraz Khan
Teams:
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Unmukt Chand, Shreyas Gopal, Kishore Kamath, Mitchell McClenaghan, Hardik Pandya, Parthiv Patel, Deepak Punia, Ambati Rayudu, Lendl Simmons, Tim Southee, Vinay Kumar, Corey Anderson, Jos Buttler, Marchant de Lange, Harbhajan Singh, Siddhesh Lad, Lasith Malinga, Krunal Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Nitish Rana, Jitesh Sharma, Nathu Singh, Suchith, Akshay Wakhare
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli, Abu Nechim, Samuel Badree, Yuzvendra Chahal, Praveen Dubey, Travis Head, Kedar Jadhav, Sarfaraz Khan, Mandeep Singh, Lokesh Rahul, Sachin Baby, Vikas Tokas, David Wiese, Varun Aaron, Sreenath Aravind, Stuart Binny, AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle, Iqbal Abdulla, Akshay Karnewar, Vikramjeet Malik, Adam Milne, Harshal Patel, Kane Richardson, Shane Watson.
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