Revived Royals face MI-shaped hurdle
Both Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians are suddenly back in the race and the clash between the two, on Sunday (May 13), could send one of them out of the fray.
MI resurged after the first half of the season and are currently on a three-match winning streak. With a total of five wins in eleven games, they are currently at the fifth position with ten points, two short of the fourth-placed Kolkata Knight Riders.
Rajasthan have also picked up ten points in eleven matches. They won both of their last two matches against Kings XI Punjab and Chennai Super Kings, respectively. Their confidence will be tested by Mumbai tonight at the Wankhede Stadium.
Mumbai Indians
MI have been very consistent in all departments throughout the second-half of the season. They defeated KKR by 102 runs in their very own backyard in the last match. Both their batting and bowling were flawless as the men led by Rohit Sharma made KKR splutter to 108 runs after registering a 200+ total.
Ishan Kishan’s 21-ball 62 runs in that match showed how desperate the MI players are to get into the playoffs. Ben Cutting also proved his worth with an impressive cameo that day and MI would like them to repeat the same when the meet RR.
MI have no reason to make any changes in the squad and are likely to field the same eleven from their last match.
Predicted XI: Suryakumar Yadav, Evin Lewis, Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya, Ishan Kishan (wk), JP Duminy, Krunal Pandya, Ben Cutting, Mitchell McClenaghan, Jasprit Bumrah, Mayank Markande
Rajasthan Royals
Unlike Mumbai, the Royals team hasn’t been able to fire in unison. There still are many issues that need to be addressed. Especially, their skipper Ajinkya Rahane doesn’t appear to be in a good form lately. Their biggest buys too are having an ordinary campaign.
The whole side is very much dependent on the starts Jos Buttler has been giving them and once the English batsman fails to continue that, things might get more problematic for the Rajasthan-based franchise.
RR will have to work as a team if they want to beat the confident MI side. They still haven’t been able to fix the right combination and are struggling with a number of spots in the team as most of the options available have underperformed. They have tried four different players in two spots in the last two games and none of them were able to hit the par.
At this point, they cannot really take any risk with the team-selection, yet one or two changes could be made in the team. Shreyas Gopal is likely to return to the team in place of Anureet Singh. Prashant Chopra might have to make place for Rahul Tripathy.
Predicted XI: Ajinkya Rahane (c), Jos Buttler (wk), Sanju Samson, Ben Stokes, Prashant Chopra/Rahul Tripathi, Stuart Binny, Krishnappa Gowtham, Jofra Archer, Shreyas Gopal, Jaydev Unadkat, Ish Sodhi.
Prediction
MI have a better record against RR at home and are likely to outperform the Rahane-led team who haven’t been able to strike all the right notes so far.
