Tottering Royal Challengers seek Wankhede spark

Royal Challengers Bangalore have only a minuscule chance of making the playoffs ahead of their trip to the Wankhede Stadium to take on Mumbai Indians

The Preview by Karthik Krishnaswamy

30-Apr-2017

Match facts

Mumbai Indians v Royal Challengers Bangalore
Mumbai, April 30, 2017
Start time 1600 local (1030 GMT)

Head-to-head

This season: A 93-run sixth-wicket partnership between Kieron Pollard and Krunal Pandya rescued Mumbai from 33 for 5, eventually leading them to a four-wicket win after a Samuel Badree hat-trick had energised Royal Challengers' defence of 142.

Overall: The two teams have met 22 times, with Mumbai winning 14 and losing eight. Recent history is also on Mumbai's side - they have won five of their last six matches against Royal Challengers.

The likely XIs

What have Royal Challengers missed most this season?

5 votes

AB de Villiers' form

A firing middle order

KL Rahul's consistency

Depth in their end-overs bowling

Mumbai Indians: 1 Parthiv Patel (wk), 2 Jos Buttler, 3 Nitish Rana, 4 Rohit Sharma (capt), 5 Krunal Pandya, 6 Kieron Pollard, 7 Hardik Pandya, 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 Mitchell McClenaghan, 10 Lasith Malinga, 11 Jasprit Bumrah

Royal Challengers Bangalore: 1 Travis Head/Chris Gayle, 2 Virat Kohli, 3 AB de Villiers, 4 Kedar Jadhav (wk), 5 Sachin Baby/Mandeep Singh, 6 Stuart Binny, 7 Pawan Negi, 8 Samuel Badree, 9 S Aravind, 10 Yuzvendra Chahal, 11 Tymal Mills/Adam Milne

Strategy punt

Krunal Pandya has dismissed AB de Villiers three times in as many innings, conceding only 12 runs off 21 balls in that time. Krunal usually comes on as soon as de Villiers is at the crease - Royal Challengers could try and combat this strategy by opening the batting with de Villiers. Krunal has never opened the bowling in his IPL career so far.

Stats that matter

Mumbai have been the most settled team this season. They have only used 15 players so far, eight of whom have played all nine of their matches.

Rohit Sharma's below-par record against wristspin has been a point of discussion through the season, and he has so far struggled against Royal Challengers' pair of legspinners. In all T20s, he has scored 36 off 36 balls against Samuel Badree for three dismissals, and has been out once to Yuzvendra Chahal while scoring 16 off 19.

Harbhajan Singh has an excellent record against Chris Gayle, dismissing him four times while conceding only 92 runs off 110 balls. He has done fairly well against AB de Villiers too, dismissing him once while giving away only 93 off 82 balls.

The Wankhede Stadium is de Villiers' quickest-scoring ground in the IPL among the venues in use this season. He has made 184 runs off 100 balls, while being dismissed four times at the Wankhede.

Royal Challengers left Mandeep Singh out of their line-up in their previous game against Rising Pune Supergiant, with good reason. He has had a terrible season so far, scoring 73 runs in seven innings at an average of 10.42 and a strike rate of 90.12. Among the 47 batsmen who have batted five or more times in the top-seven positions this season, only two batsmen - Wriddhiman Saha and Suryakumar Yadav - have a poorer average, and only one - Karun Nair - has a worse strike rate.

Mitchell McClenaghan and Jasprit Bumrah have accounted for exactly half (23 out of 46) of the wickets taken by Mumbai's bowlers this season.

McClenaghan and Bumrah have bowled 186 balls in the last five overs of games this season, conceding 273 runs at an economy rate of 8.81. The rest of Mumbai's bowlers, in that period, have combined to send down 83 balls, conceding 146 at 10.55 per over.

Royal Challengers' control percentage of 68.87 is the lowest among all batting teams this season. Every other team has managed a 70-plus control percentage, with Sunrisers Hyderabad topping the table at 76.93%.

Mumbai Indians Royal Challengers Bengaluru India RCB vs MI IPL

Karthik Krishnaswamy is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo

PLAYER NAME		R	B
PA Patel	caught	0	1
JC Buttler	caught	33	21
N Rana	caught	27	28
RG Sharma	not out	56	37
KA Pollard	caught	17	13
KH Pandya	retired hurt	2	2
KV Sharma	caught	9	8
HH Pandya	not out	14	9
Extras	(lb 2, w 5)
Total	165(5 wkts; 19.5 ovs)

PLAYER NAME	O	R	W	Econ
A Choudhary	4	32	1	8
YS Chahal	4	36	1	9
AF Milne	2	29	0	14.5
S Aravind	2	21	0	10.5
SR Watson	3.5	28	1	7.3
P Negi	4	17	2	4.25

WKT	RUNS	PLAYERS
1st	0	Parthiv Patel	Jos Buttler
2nd	61	Jos Buttler	Nitish Rana
3rd	9	Rohit Sharma	Nitish Rana
4th	28	Rohit Sharma	Kieron Pollard
5th	3	Rohit Sharma	Krunal Pandya
6th	29	Karn Sharma	Rohit Sharma
7th	35	Rohit Sharma	Hardik Pandya

Tottering Royal Challengers seek Wankhede spark

Match facts

Head-to-head

The likely XIs

Strategy punt

Stats that matter

Buttler, Rana stand helps Mumbai qualify for playoffs

A crack in AB de Villiers' game

Nerveless Rohit steers tight chase

Rohit masterminds tense chase to take Mumbai to top

Tottering Royal Challengers seek Wankhede spark

Bangar: Rohit at No. 4 makes sense without Rayudu

Bangar: Rohit's sacrifice, experience helping Mumbai finish close games

Hogg: Last opportunity for Malinga to perform

Indian Premier League

TEAM	M	W	L	PT	NRR
MI	14	10	4	20	0.784
RPS	14	9	5	18	0.176
SRH	14	8	5	17	0.599
KKR	14	8	6	16	0.641
KXIP	14	7	7	14	-0.009
DC	14	6	8	12	-0.512
GL	14	4	10	8	-0.412
RCB	14	3	10	7	-1.299