G Krishnan
Mumbai, April 11
Mumbai Indians seem to have got back their winning touch and take that confidence when they face Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the Wankhede Stadium today evening.
MI’s first win came against Delhi Capitals last Sunday after getting off to a worse start, losing three on the trot including their first of four consecutive home matches, against Rajasthan Royals. It is expected that MI will post wins in their remaining five matches at home, two of which are back-to-back against RCB today and Chennai Super Kings on Sunday.
Mumbai Indians have always dominated RCB in IPL, be it at the Wankhede, where they have won six matches and lost three out of nine, or in RCB’s home ground, M Chinnaswamy Stadium, winning eight and losing three out of 11 clashes. MI have an overall win-loss ratio of 18:14 in 32 head-to-heads against the red and gold team that is yetbro win an IPL title.
It is expected to go MI’s way as they have more power-hitters and the encouraging thing is that all their top-order have been amongst the runs. The welcome sight of Tim David hitting at will and the West Indies recruit Romario Shepherd smashing 32 runs in the innings’ final over against DC speak loud about the muscle power in MI’s batting in the death overs.
The bowling, apart from their numero uno Jasprit Bumrah, who is economical as well as taking crucial wickets, needs to be sharper. But, being a batting pitch, there is little help for the bowlers, and the batsmen usually go for the shorter boundaries on the square of the wicket and look for easy sixes.
MI’s finisher Tim David said on Wednesday: “We know that Wankhede is tough to defend at the back end, especially chasing. Of course bowlers are under pressure, that’s the nature of playing at Wankhede, playing for Mumbai. No concerns about the rest of the bowlers.”
It is a clash among the eighth-placed MI and ninth-placed RCB, who have won only one match and lost four including the ones in which Orange Cap holder Virat Kohli (316 runs in 5 innings) scored unbeaten 83 against Kolkata Knight Riders and a masterly 113 not out against Rajasthan Royals in their previous match.
Up against Kohli at the top of the batting order is Rohit Sharma, who has got starts and not scored a fifty yet. Rohit relieved of captaincy allows him to bat freely and without much pressures other than seeing his team to good totals.
RCB lanky left-arm pacer, Reece Topley, who played in only two matches and took three wickets, said on match eve the prospects of bowling at the Wankhede excited him. “That makes my game more exciting, obviously a good pitch, small stadium where sixes are scored here. For me, they are the days that are really interesting because you have to earn your money. It’s a good game of cat and mouse. There’s nothing to lose as a bowler. You go out with the brave and aggressive mindset when you are bowling. There’s more to gain in this situation and it excites you as a bowler.”
While Kohli has been the fulcrum of the RCB innings, the rest of the batsmen have not risen to the occasion, and consistently at that. If it is skipper Faf du Plessis one innings giving Kohli the support, it is Cameron Green in another but the fireworks from Glenn Maxwell’s blade has been missing. Kohli has been the only RCB batsman to have scored in excess of fifty on three occasions. That shows how much dependent RCB are on their former captain who is also the highest run-getter among all teams in IPL history.
RCB’s bowling is something that is also worrying as Md Siraj has been leaking runs and rarely taken wickets, four in five matches including two wicketketless games. Their bowling tactics also are sometimes difficult to understand as they have not given probably their best bowler a longer run. Vijaykumar Vyshak bowled well to give away only 23 runs in his four matches and pick up a wicket against Kolkata Knight Riders when every other bowler went for at least seven runs an over. However, the young right-arm medium-pacer did not get another game, before or after.
