The Rajasthan Royals host the Mumbai Indians in Jaipur on Sunday evening. Both the teams are on the bottom half of the table and would desperately want a win under their belts to get their campaign up and running in the ongoing season of the IPL.
While the Rajasthan Royals have 2 wins in 5 games, the Mumbai Indians have only managed to open their accounts in their last encounter against the RCB and are at the 7th place on the points tally. Rajasthan Royals have had serious issues with the balance of the side and would look to sort that before their encounter against the Mumbai Indians.
MI, who have played some good cricket in the tournament, were not able to cling on to the critical moments of the matches and hence ended up on the losing side in their first three games. However, a good performance where they outplayed RCB would have helped MI gain a lot of confidence and Mumbai would definitely be a tough opponent for the Rajasthan at their home ground.
RR on the other hand, have had serious concerns with their bowling in general. The likes of Jaydev Unadkat, Ben Laughlin and Ben Stokes have been extremely expensive and have failed to exert any kind of pressure on the batsmen. This has made batting considerably easy for the opposition as they have not felt the heat.
After a four-day break the MI would look to show some positive intent and as per tradition catch up with the slow start to compete for a spot in the final four. As far as the balance of both the teams is concerned, Mumbai Indians clearly is the more balanced team and would start as favorites against the Rajasthan Royals but then that’s the thing with MI- they are quite unpredictable.
Captains of their respective franchise- Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane would be extremely important for their team’s success tonight. It was only when Rohit- the batsman, found some form that the MI were finally able to win a game in the tournament. Similarly, Rajasthan skipper Rahane has been scoring some quick runs, providing good starts for the team and would look to continue his positive intent in this game.
Evin Lewis has a couple of good innings behind him and Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav who missed out in the previous game, getting out for ducks, would look to bounce back against the RR.
As far as the Rajasthan Royals are concerned, Ben Stokes and Sanju Samson would be expected to deliver for the team and are players to watch out for tonight.
It is Jaipur’s Sawai Mansingh stadium and the big boundaries will come into the picture. Hence the spinners would fancy their chances in Jaipur- spotlight would be on Mayank Markande and Shreyas Gopal who have done a good job for MI and RR respectively.
Also keep an eye on Jasprit Bumrah, India’s death over specialist. Here is a high-voltage clash to end the weekend on a high. Broadcast starts at 20:00 Hours(IST).
