Minutes before twilight on Saturday, the first batch of Mumbai Indians arrived at the Wankhede Stadium in their training outfit and prepare for a skirmish against Rajasthan Royals in a vital Vivo IPL 11 league match on Sunday.
The team may have appeared luckless and listless for a little over three weeks of the league, but with wins in the last three matches it has given itself a chance to make the play off that looked highly doubtless after it went down by 14 runs to Virat Kohli’s team at Bangalore on May Day.
But three wins thereafter – against Kings XI Punjab in Indore and back-to-back matches against the Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens by a whopping 102 runs — has given it the momentum.
Playing his first full season for MI, he had turned out for MI in one match six years ago, Suryakumar Yadav has more than justified the franchise’s faith in him. He has so far scored 435 runs (364 as an opener in nine innings) and has been chiefly instrumental in getting runs in the PowerPlays. West Indian Evan Lewis has played a few aggressive knocks, but with only three matches remaining, MI would look for substance from the rest of its batsmen, mainly from skipper Rohit Sharma.
With five wins and ten points, MI cannot afford to lose a match with the race for the top four, specifically for the No. 3 and 4 slots, becoming tighter by the day.
If the fortunes of MI has dramatically changed in the last week, it has been much the same for the Jaipur team. Without doubt, the swashbuckling Englishman, Jos Buttler has been the story of Rajasthan Royals’ success story. The keeper-batsman has run up scores of 67, 51, 82 and 95 not out in the last four matches and vitally won the last two matches, including against Chennai Super Kings on Friday. The Royals have ten points with an inferior net run rate. A positive outcome for either of the team would still not guarantee a play off slot.
The Teams (From):
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (C), Suryakumar Yadav, Evin Lewis, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Mayank Markande, Mitchell McLenaghan, Mustafizur Rahaman, Jasprit Bumrah, Akila Dananjaya, Ben Cutting, JP Duminy, Rahul Chahar, Sharad Lumba, Adam Milne, Siddhesh Lad, Md Nidheesh, Mohsin Khan, Anukul Roy, Pradeep Sangwan, Tajinder Singh, Aditya Tare, Saurabh Tiwary.
Rajasthan Royals: Ajinkya Rahane (C), Ben Stokes, Stuart Binny, Sanju Samson, Jos Buttler, Rahul Tripathi, D Arcy Short, Krishnappa Gowtham, Jofra Archer, Dhawal Kulkarni, Jaydev Unadkat, Ankit Sharma, Anureet Singh, Shreyas Gopal, Prashant Chopra, Sudhesan Midhun, Ben Laughlin, Mahipal Lomror, Aryaman Birla, Jatin Saxena, Dushmantha Chameera, Heinrich Klaasen, Ish Sodhi.
Match starts at 8 PM.
