Preview
Mumbai Indians (MI) have found the going a tad tough in the 2021 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The Rohit Sharma-led unit lost their last two matches and are hanging in the middle of the points table with two wins from five games.
In their next match, the five-time IPL fantasy cricket leagues champions would be facing Sanju Samson’s Rajasthan Royals (RR) on April 29 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. The Royals, on the other hand, are placed seventh in the points table. However, the six-wicket win over the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) should give them a whole lot of confidence.
Another win will take them to fourth in the table. On the head-to-head count in daily fantasy cricket, both MI and RR are locked on 12 wins each and a cracking encounter seems to be on the cards for Thursday at the national capital.
Match Details
Match – Mumbai Indians vs Rajasthan Royals – 24th match
Venue – Arun Jaitley Stadium, New Delhi
Time – 3:30 PM IST, 10:00 AM GMT
Where to watch live – Star Sports Network, Hotstar
Pitch Report
The pitch in New Delhi has been a sporting one thus far. The average score indicates that bowlers and batters are going to have their say in equal proportion. But the game will be played under natural lights.
Hence, the spinners are expected to come into the picture a bit more. Batting might be a tad easier in the second half. The conditions will be hot with a temperature around 41 degrees Celsius.
Avg first innings score: 163 (7 T20 matches at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in IPL 2019)
Record of chasing teams: Won – 4, Lost – 2, Tied – 1
Probable Playing XIs:
Mumbai Indians
Rohit Sharma (c), Quinton de Kock, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Rahul Chahar, Jayant Yadav, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah
Bench: Anmolpreet Singh, Saurabh Tiwary, Anukul Roy, James Neesham, Arjun Tendulkar, Piyush Chawla, Nathan Coulter Nile, Aditya Tare, Jayant Yadav, Yudhvir Singh, Dhawal Kulkarni, Mohsin Khan, Chris Lynn, Marco Jansen, Adam Milne
Rajasthan Royals
Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson (C & WK), Shivam Dube, David Miller, Riyan Parag, Chris Morris, Rahul Tewatia, Jaydev Unadkat, Chetan Sakariya, Mustafizur Rahman
Bench: Liam Livingstone, Manan Vohra, Mahipal Lomror, Shreyas Gopal, Andrew Tye, Anuj Rawat, Akash Singh, Jofra Archer, KC Cariappa, Mayank Markande, Kuldip Yadav, Kartik Tyagi
Head-to-Head
Overall
Played – 25 | Mumbai Indians– 12 | Rajasthan Royals– 12 |N/R – 1
At neutral venues
Played – 10 | Mumbai Indians – 6 | Rajasthan Royals – 3 |N/R – 1
Probable best batsman of the match
Sanju Samson– Rajasthan Royals
Sanju Samson showed a lot of maturity in the game against the Knights as he stayed unbeaten on 42 off 41 balls. In the ongoing tournament, the RR skipper has scored 187 runs at an average and strike rate of 46.75 and 143.84 respectively.
Against MI, the youngster has decent numbers as well. In 16 matches, he has racked up 446 runs with five half-centuries at a decent strike rate of 140.25.
Jasprit Bumrah– Mumbai Indians
In the current edition of the IPL, Jasprit Bumrah has bowled at an economy of 6.36, but he has only gotten four wickets to show for his efforts. He hasn’t been able to make the breakthroughs MI expected him to.
However, against the Royals, the speedster has been a genuine wicket-taker. In 30 overs, he has 11 wickets to his name with one four-wicket haul. He also has an economy rate of 7.23.
