Preview: Rajasthan Royals Look To Revive Fortunes Against Rampaging Mumbai Indians
Mumbai Indians have won five of their last six matches, the only defeat having come against Rajasthan Royals.
Highlights
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RR have won only one match at home, against RCB
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Rajasthan Royals have four points from eight matches
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Mumbai Indians have twelve points from nine matches
Rajasthan Royals (RR) face a race against time to climb out of the bottom two in the Indian Premier League (IPL) Points Table when they host Mumbai Indians (MI) at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium in Jaipur in the first of two IPL 2019 matches to be played on Saturday. MI, who climbed to second spot with their win against Delhi Capitals on Thursday, have won five of their last six matches, the only defeat having come against Rajasthan Royals. RR's victory in Mumbai last week is only one of two wins recorded by them this season.
RR's dismal record at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium does not make pretty reading for home fans. Apart from their lone victory against Royal Challengers Bangalore, they have lost three matches at home.
England's Jos Buttler has done the bulk of scoring for Rajasthan but the rest of the batsmen have either struggled or not been consistent.
The pace-spin duo of Jofra Archer and Shreyas Gopal has spearheaded their bowling attack but the other bowlers have been far from penetrative and also proved costly in death overs.
Mumbai Indians, on the other hand, have looked formidable this season with a good mix of power hitters, quality bowlers and perfect all-rounders.
If skipper Rohit Sharma, who completed 8000 runs in T20 last night, and Quinton de Kock laid the foundation at the top, the Pandya brothers -- Hardik and Krunal, along with the big-hitting Kieron Pollard -- have provided the late charge to help MI post huge scores.
They also have two of the best death overs bowlers in Lasith Malinga and Jasprit Bumrah. Young leg-spinner Rahul Chahar's three wicket haul was one of the highlights of MI's win against Delhi.
Squads:
Rajasthan Royals: Ajinkya Rahane (capt), Ben Stokes, Joffre Archer, Jos Butler, Ashton Turner, Ish Sodhi, Oshane Thomas, Liam Livingstone, Sanju Samson (wk), Shubham Ranjane, Steve Smith, Stuart Binny, Shreyas Gopal, Sudhesan Midhun, Jaydev Unadkat, Prashant Chopra, Mahipal Lomror, Aryaman Birla, Riyan Parag, Dhawal Kulkarni, Krishnappa Gowtham, Varun Aaron, Shashank Singh, Manan Vohra, Rahul Tripathi.
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (capt), Quinton de Kock (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Krunal Pandya, Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Jayant Yadav, Rahul Chahar, Ben Cutting, Lasith Malinga, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuvraj Singh, Anmolpreet Singh, Aditya Tare, Siddhesh Lad, Evin Lewis, Pankaj Jaiswal, Anukul Roy, Mayank Markande, Mitchell McClenaghan, Barinder Sran, Rasikh Salam, Ishan Kishan, Jason Behrendorff.
Match starts at 4 pm IST
(With PTI inputs)
Mumbai Indians
Rajasthan Royals
Ajinkya Rahane
Rohit Sharma
Shreyas Gopal
Jos Buttler