Rajasthan Royals face Mumbai Indians in a must-win game in match 45 in Abu Dhabi on Sunday. The Men in Pink are languishing at the seventh position in the points table and need to win all their remaining games to make the playoffs. Meanwhile, Mumbai Indians are coming into this game after a big win over arch-rivals Chennai Super Kings. The match will be played at in Abu Dhabi where Mumbai have won five games so far. More about the RR vs MI match preview in detail below.
Mumbai Indians are growing from strength to strength with every game they play in the season. Their previous win against CSK was an example of this exact point. With skipper Rohit Sharma rested, young batsman Ishan Kishan took up the opportunity and opened the batting alongside Quinton De Kock. He displayed his matchwinning ability by scoring his second fifty of the season. In the middle-order, the trio of the Pandya brothers and Pollard give them the firepower.
Their bowling attack has been the best in the tournament so far. Trent Boult and Jasprit Bumrah have wrecked through opposition top orders. Together they have taken 33 wickets so far. The Royals’ wobbling top-order has to weather the storm of this duo.
The Royals need to win everything from here on, which adds to the pressure all the more. They have not been the best side in this tournament. They started brilliantly bagging two wins in Sharjah but since then has tapered off. With them needing to win every game, their batting order needs to be settled first and then produce the results. Jos Buttler needs to go back to the top of the order with Robin Uthappa. Smith, Samson and Stokes needs to be their middle-order core and produce the goods.
Bowling wise Jofra Archer has been at his best but without any support from the other end. Ben Stokes, too is not being able to bowl as good as he wants to. The spinners have done good job in the middle overs. However, they have not been able to deliver consistently for the team. It’s their batting which is the strength of their team, but it has been rather inconsistent for their liking.
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Head to Head- Mumbai Indians vs Rajasthan Royals
It was 11-all before Mumbai Indians got the better of the Royals in their last game in Abu Dhabi. They beat the Royals by 57 runs in that game. They meet again at the same venue in the second leg.
Pitch & Weather Conditions
Mumbai have been consistently scoring between 170-190 batting first. With KKR scoring 194 batting first against DC, both teams should draw confidence from that game into their contest.
Team News
Rohit Sharma was benched due to a hamstring injury. Should he recover from it before the game, he will replace Saurabh Tiwary in the side. RR needs to set their batting line-up with that aspect of their game stronger than the rest.
Squads
Rajasthan Royals
Steven Smith (c), Sanju Samson (wk), Robin Uthappa, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia, Jofra Archer, Shreyas Gopal, Ankit Rajpoot, Kartik Tyagi, Varun Aaron, Jaydev Unadkat, David Miller, Aniruddha Joshi, Manan Vohra, Tom Curran, Andrew Tye, Shashank Singh, Mahipal Lomror, Oshane Thomas, Mayank Markande, Anuj Rawat, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Akash Singh
Mumbai Indians
Quinton de Kock (wk), Kieron Pollard (c), Ishan Kishan, Saurabh Tiwary, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Rahul Chahar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah, Rohit Sharma, Dhawal Kulkarni, James Pattinson, Aditya Tare, Mitchell McClenaghan, Chris Lynn, Jayant Yadav, Anmolpreet Singh, Anukul Roy, Mohsin Khan, Sherfane Rutherford, Digvijay Deshmukh, Prince Balwant Rai
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