(Cricket news) Mumbai Indians suffered their third consecutive defeat against KKR in a match which looked there’s to lose as Pat Cummins caused havoc in the Mumbai bowling line up. On the other hand Royal Challengers Bangalore are on a roll after Dinesh Karthik helped them finish off the innings with a brilliant knock and the added fact that they will have their talisman Glen Maxwell along with Josh Hazelwood available for selection, will help boost their confidence.
Mumbai Indians have quite a lot of issues to address as their bowling line up of Basil Thampi, Tymal Mills and Daniel Sams have leaked runs with the ball, while their older batting hands Rohit and Kieron Pollard are yet to find some form in the tournament. We can expect the inclusion of Fabian Allen to perform the Krunal Pandya role in place of Daniel Sams who was taken to the raptors by Pat Cummins last match. MI may also consider swapping out Basil Thampi for more experience in the form of Jaydev Unadkat, who had his breakthrough season in 2017 playing on the two-paced Pune pitches. Rohit needs to be wary of how he uses Jasprit Bumrah’s four overs as in the last match his use of him was really sceptical, his record against Kohli is one to watch out as he usually has the edge over him in IPL games.
RCB are riding high on Dinesh Karthik’s brilliance after him and Shabaz Ahmed guided them to a fine victory and now with Glenn Maxwell coming into the playing XI, they now all of a sudden possess a really strong middle order. The RCB management will want more from Anuj Rawat, although he has had two fifty partnerships with Faf Du Plessis, his individual scores read, 21 (20), 0 (2) and 26 (25) as Mike Henson will hope that the opener maximises the powerplay. David Willey and Shahbaz Ahmed will be used as floaters, to tackle leg spinner M Ashwin and left-arm finger spinner Fabian Allen. David Willey is strong against leg spinners, as is his T20 strike rate of 134.40 against them. Hasaranga will hold the key in terms of the bowling department.
Pitch and weather report: The Pune pitch has been the most unpredictable pitch this year as the four games held here have had different outcomes. Pune assures one thing, that the pitch will be a two paced wicket, where the spinners will play a major part in the game. Early on we might see the pacers getting some pace off the wicket. The temperature is going to hover around 30 degrees as dew will not be a big factor compared to the Mumbai venues.
Interesting facts:
- Karthik has dominated Jasprit Bumrah in T20s; he has scored 54 runs off 33 balls at a strike rate of 163.63 without getting out
- Bumrah has dismissed Maxwell, r seven times in 15 innings while giving up 75 runs off 65 balls.
- Harshal Patel has picked up 18 wickets in ten matches against MI at an economy rate of 7.59 and average of 12.94.
- RCB and MIi have the worst death-overs economy rate in IPL 2022 with (13.32) and (12.94) respectively.
- Rohit is 51 runs away from becoming the second Indian after Kohli – to 10,000 T20 runs.
Also read: Rahul Tewatia and Shubman Gill lead GT to a 6 wicket win over PBKS
Probable XI for MI:
1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Ishan Kishan (wk), 3 Tilak Varma, 4 Suryakumar Yadav, 5 Tim David/Dewald Brevis, 6 Kieron Pollard, 7 Fabien Allen, 8 M Ashwin, 9 Tymal Mills, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Basil Thampi/Jaydev Unadkat
Probable XI for RCB:
1 Faf du Plessis (capt), 2 Anuj Rawat/Mahipal Lomror, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Glenn Maxwell, 5 David Willey, 6 Shahbaz Ahmed, 7 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 8 Harshal Patel, 9 Wanindu Hasaranga, 10 Mohammed Siraj, 11 Akash Deep
