Dispirited Royals look for batting lift against confident Mumbai
Big picture
Heading into their first face-off in IPL 2019, Mumbai Indians' 10 wins to Rajasthan Royals' eight in tournament head-to-heads speak little of the two sides' contrasting runs this season. A faithful picture of their fortunes, though, reflects in their edge-of-the-seat final-ball finishes - both at home - in their most-recent outings. With an equanimous approach to a steep chase, Mumbai snared their third straight win, whereas Royals, consistently inconsistent across disciplines and clutch phases in all of their five defeats in six games, couldn't defend 18 off the last over despite a contentious overturning of a no-ball.
Royals had made three changes to their playing XI on Thursday against Chennai Super Kings in a bid to lift themselves from the seventh spot. Jaydev Unadkat picked Faf du Plessis to help stifle the visiting team 24 for 4 in the Powerplay and 19-year-old wristspinner Riyan Parag struck an enterprising 14-ball 16 to go with his wicketless three overs on IPL debut. A fit-again Sanju Samson, meanwhile, struck an elegant four off the first ball he faced only to be dismissed for a second straight single-digit score after that sizzling century in the opening week.
Royals' woes, however, run deeper than Samson's underwhelming comeback. Form and fluency - and captaincy - appear to be at odds with Ajinkya Rahane; Steven Smith's odd, underarm throws in the field bear the same touch of uncertainty as his batting form. And Ben Stokes' oddity as a superlative allrounder and a deliverer of unforgettable last overs have swayed between scratchy middle-order runs, a jaw-dropping stunner at point and... wait for it... failing to defend a sizeable number of runs in deciding over of the game. If Royals could take heart from anything, though, it should be the all-round returns of Jofra Archer and legspinner Shreyas Gopal.
Mumbai's comeback from their eight-wicket thrashing at the hands of Kings XI Punjab, meanwhile, has been as emphatic as their game-changer Kieron Pollard's debut as IPL captain. Standing in for the injured Rohit Sharma, Pollard stood out with his astute calls on the field on Thursday as he did with his blistering 83 that muted Kings XI's 197 defence. With a chase as resounding as that under Mumbai's belt, Royals will need to pull a rabbit out of their hat to stall Mumbai in the first day-night game at the Wankhede this season.
In the news
Rohit batted at the Wankhede nets on Friday and is set to return to captaining the side, after sitting out his first IPL game since 2008, with a muscle spasm in his right leg on Wednesday. This would necessitate Siddesh Lad make his way out two nights after his IPL debut. Expect Pollard to bat at No. 4 for a second straight match.
Giving Ashton Turner a game in favour of an out-of-sorts Steven Smith or a misfiring Ben Stokes could be that much warranted - albeit somewhat belated - throw of the dice that could help Royals get their campaign back on track.
Likely XIs
Mumbai Indians: 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Quinton de Kock, 3 Suryakumar Yadav, 4 Kieron Pollard, 5 Ishan Kishan, 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Krunal Pandya, 8 Alzarri Joseph, 9 Rahul Chahar, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Jason Behrendorff
Rajasthan Royals: 1 Ajinkya Rahane (capt), 2 Jos Buttler (wk), 3 Sanju Samson, 4 Steven Smith/ Ashton Turner, 5 Rahul Tripathi, 6 Ben Stokes, 7 Jofra Archer, 8 Shreyas Gopal, 9 Riyan Parag, 10 Jaydev Unadkat, 11 Dhawal Kulkarni
Strategy punt
- Mumbai's top three - Rohit, Quinton de Kock and Suryakumar Yadav - have been dismissed a whopping 15 times while attempting to play the pull shot since IPL 2018. Take note, Jofra Archer, Dhawal Kulkarni, and Jaydev Unadkat.
- Archer could well be the answer to keeping in check the in-form troika of Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav. In a combined seven innings, Archer has dismissed them once each, just for just 21 runs off 29 balls.
- At 30.3, Hardik Pandya currently boasts a personal-best average in an IPL season. But finding an alternative to the 25-year-old as a death-bowling option could hold Mumbai in good stead given his economy of 15.2 in the last five overs as compared to 9.6 and 6.3 in the Powerplay and the middle phase.
Stats that matter
- With Saturday's match, Mumbai are set to become the first team in T20 cricket to play 200 matches.
- Records galore await Rohit, who is set to captain Mumbai for the 100th time. He is also one hit shy of 100 sixes for Mumbai as captain, and is 59 and 87 runs short of reaching 3500 runs in IPL for Mumbai and 8000 runs overall in T20s respectively.
- In the Royals' camp, one strike will take Unadkat to the milestone of 150 T20 wickets, while Stokes needs two sixes to round out 100 in the format.
- Royals have the worst death-overs economy this season, conceding 11.5 runs per and for a meagre 1.6 wickets - the least among all teams.