For an Indian Premier League fan, it is one of the most anticipated clashes of the summer extravaganza. No wonder then that it is the earliest sold out game every year, with the presence of big-hitters in the opposition line-up.
However, on the eve of Mumbai Indians’ clash with Royal Challengers Bangalore, the most awaited face-off of the year has turned into one of the drabbest games to look out for.
When Mumbai Indians scraped through to victory against RCB a fortnight ago in Bengaluru, neither team would have anticipated that the return leg would be played with little bearing over the qualification for playoffs.
With seven victories from nine games, Rohit Sharma’s MI is all but assured of a place in the last four. In fact, the team is competing for the top spot in the league table with the in-form Kolkata Knight Riders.
- Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Lendl Simmons, Mitchel Johnsohn, Mitchell McClenghan, Nitish Rana, Parthiv Patel, Saurabh Tiwary, Shreyas Gopal, Tim Southee, Lasith Malinga, Krunal Pandya, Keiron Pollard, Ambati Rayudu, Asela Gunaratne, Harbhajan Singh, Hardik Pandya, Jagdish Suchith, Jaspreet Bumrah, Jos Buttler, Karn Sharma and Vinay Kumar.
- Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli (captain), AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle, Yuzvendra Chahal, Harshal Patel, Mandeep Singh, Adam Milne, Vishnu Vinod, Sreenath Arvind, Kedar Jadhav (wk), Shane Watson, Stuart Binny, Samuel Badree, Iqbal Abdulla, Travis Head, Sachin Baby, Avesh Khan, Tabraiz Shamsi, Tymal Mills, Aniket Chaudhary, Praveen Dubey, Billy Stanlake.
- Match starts at 4pm.
Hopes lost
On the other hand, placed second from the bottom with five points from 10 games, Virat Kohli’s outfit has lost hopes of making the playoffs.
More than its seven losses, RCB is dejected that its fancied batting line-up has not been able to cope up with the pressure. Its last three totals are 57 all out (vs KKR), 134 all out (vs Lions) and 96 for nine (vs RPS).
Even MI, which celebrated Rohit’s 30th birthday on Sunday after returning to its base from Rajkot the previous night, would realise that standings aside, it needs to tick a few boxes as the death overs of the league stage begin. Jasprit Bumrah’s stupendous super over may have helped the team earn the vital two points, still the chinks in its chasing abilities were exposed once again.
The lower order crisis, coupled with Rohit’s batting woes means MI has plenty of areas to improve.
But those are nothing compared to Kohli’s. The RCB batting unit just hasn’t recovered after being bowled out for the lowest ever total in IPL history in Kolkata last week.
Kohli couldn’t really lift the spirit and performance of his teammates and it will be interesting if he can turn the tide against Mumbai.
