Buoyed by its thrilling last-ball win over Delhi Daredevils, a confident Rajasthan Royals will take on a beleaguered Mumbai Indians in an IPL-8 encounter here on Tuesday.
Having won its first two matches on the road, RR will be playing its first match at its “adopted home” venue of Sardar Patel Stadium in Motera.
For Royals, the tournament couldn’t have started on a better note with two victories in its first two games.
While the 26-run win against Kings XI Punjab in Pune was a walk in the park, Royals were stretched to the limit by Daredevils in the second where Tim Southee got them home with a splendid last-ball boundary.
The IPL unearths new talent every year and the talk after the first five days has been about young Baroda all-rounder Deepak Hooda, who has surprised one and all with his composure and big-hitting abilities.
The 25-ball 54 against DD has made him the ‘talk of the town’ and with Ajinkya Rahane and Smith for company, the youngster is expected to blossom further.
For MI, it’s been the worst start — beaten by seven wickets by defending champion Kolkata Knight Riders and losing to Kings XI Punjab by 18 runs.
On paper, Royals will start favourites, but MI cannot be written off.
In IPL-7 also, MI lost five matches on the trot in the UAE leg before recovering remarkably to make it to the play-offs.
But batting has been a bit of a bother for MI, which has icons like Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble and Ricky Ponting on board to help the players.
Barring Rohit Sharma in the first game and Harbhajan Singh in the second, the MI top order has not performed to expectations.
Australian opener Aaron Finch and India’s middle-order batsman Ambati Rayudu have both looked out of sorts, while Corey Anderson has been a bit scratchy despite a half-century in the first match at the Eden Gardens.
But with the likes of Kieron Pollard, Finch and Rohit set to make amends for the last game, the task will be cut out for Chris Morris, Tim Southee and James Faulkner on a batting friendly Motera pitch which also provides some help to spinners.
The batting line-up is also pretty solid despite the absence of regular captain Shane Watson, who is out with a toe injury.
With the current combination, which has Smith, Faulkner, Southee and Morris as the four overseas cricketers in the playing XI, doing well, it will be interesting to see whether the regular captain can find a place in the team.
