IPL Preview | MI vs RCB

Welcome to match No. 5 featuring The Royal Challengers Bangalore & Mumbai Indians!

On one end, there are Mumbai Indians ~ the most successful franchise in the history of IPL with Five Trophies. In the previous season, they had a horrific time! For the first time ever they finished at the bottom of the table; it was the worst performance by Mumbai Indians across all editions. Today marks the beginning of a new season for MI with a new coach, new hopes and some new players. The franchise shall, however, play without Jasprit Bumrah. This seems like a huge blow! He's an asset for the Mumbai Indians and the only bowler in IPL History to pick at least 15 wickets in the last 7 seasons. They also lost another member from their pace department - Australian seamer, Jhye Richardson, got ruled out with a hamstring injury. All eyes would now be on Jofra Archer as to how he leads the Mumbai pace attack. He has missed the entirety of last season for the Mumbai Indians and has been out of all forms of cricket for the past 18 months. Foreseeing his need in the future, MI continued to bid for him during the last year and snared him at a high price. Though Jofra makes his MI debut, but he still misses out on forming a dream new ball pair with Bumrah.
(One of the most shocking stats here - for every season since 2013, MI have lost each one their very first match! It's going to be interesting to watch MI end their unfortunate streak of losing the first match(or not))

At the other end, there are the Royal Challengers Bangalore ~ who have been doing very well in the last few seasons. They’re, in fact, the Only team to reach playoffs in the last 3 seasons. Despite playing for 15 continuous years for the same team, the IPL Trophy is still missing in Virat Kohli's Cabinet. Faf and Co. will be focusing on grabbing their first ever IPL title this year. The iconic M. Chinnaswamy Stadium will be hosting an Indian Premier League match after 4 years. The loud chants of ‘RCB RCB RCB’ will be back! Out of the first 8 games, 6 of them are scheduled at Chinnaswamy, because of the elections in Karnataka. RCB will try to use this to their advantage and maximise the points quickly to get at the Top of the Points table. Virat Kohli's return to form also comes as a big relief for RCB.
(Another shocking stat here, RCB Managed to win only 2 out of 10 matches at home against Mumbai Indians. It’s going to be interesting to see, if RCB ends MI's Domination at their own home venue!)

Head to Head
MI - 17 || RCB - 13

At Chinnaswamy
MI - 8 || RCB - 2

Last 5 matches
MI - 1 || RCB - 4

Probable XI for MI
Rohit, Ishan, Surya, Tilak, C Green, T David, Archer, H Shokeen, Arshad Khan, Behrendroff, K Kartikeya

MI have settled on an opening pair of Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan. This is one area which seems completely sorted. Followed by Suryakumar Yadav, who has been hitting all the right notes over the last few months in T20s and went on to become No.1 T20I batter. At 4, Tilak Varma - he impressed each and everyone with his performance in the last season. At 5, Cameron Green - all eyes would be on him; he got a whopping amount of 17.5cr in the Auction. He is an elegant batter who can bat at any position when Team needs and a bowler who can do a decent job both with New ball and at the death. Tim David follows at 6, who played really well in the last season. He could play some destructive shots at the end to change momentum of a game. MI have plenty of young players across departments which indicate they have kept an eye on the future. Arshad Khan, Hrithik Shokeen, Kumar Karthikeya mostly will make in To XI. Arshad is a decent left-arm pacer. He can also strike big if needed. The spin department will probably be in the hands of Hrithik & Karthikeya; both had given decent performances in last season. Jofra Archer and Jason Behrendorff are the two leading pacers. Both will led Pacing attack of Mumbai Indians!

Probable XI of RCB : Faf du Plessis, Kohli, Prabudesai, Maxwell, Lomror, Karthik, Bracewell, Shahbaz, Harshal, Topley, Siraj

Reports suggest Hazlewood & Hasaranga would miss the initial matches of IPL and Patidar is doubtful for the first half due to injury. du Plessis will open the batting with Kohli. Both the players are capable of playing long innings and had tremendous success in the past. Management is going to heavily rely on their performances. Suyash Prabhudessai is likely to get a chance in place of Patidar, he has been a consistent performer in domestic cricket not only with the bat, but is capable of bowling too. RCB’s middle-order looks solid with the presence of Glenn Maxwell and Dinesh Karthik. While Maxwell had a great season last year, Karthik won Superstiker of the Season award. Kiwi all-rounder Michael Bracewell is to get a chance. He appears as a replacement of Will Jacks who got ruled out due to injury. Recently, Bracewell smashed a century during the practice game of RCB. Lomror and Shahbaaz will play a vital role; both are handy all-rounders and can contribute in all departments. Shahbaz Ahmed has been with Indian team; he had shown improvement. In comparison to other teams, Bangalore has a wonderful pace attack with the service of Harshal Patel, Md Siraj and R Thopley; all are internationally experienced.

Matchups (all T20s)

Rohit vs Harshal - 23 runs, 3 outs (117 SR)
Rohit vs Siraj - 66 runs, 0 outs (157 SR)
Surya vs Siraj - 43 runs, 1 out (215 SR)
Surya vs Hasaranga - 64 runs, 1 out (160 SR)
Ishan vs Siraj - 33 runs, 1 out (150 SR)
Kohli vs Archer - 57 runs, 0 out (121SR)
Kohli vs Behrendroff - 17 runs, 2 out (121SR)
Faf vs Archer - 30 runs, 2 out (130SR)
Maxwell vs Archer - 14 runs, 2 out (82 SR)
Maxwell vs Green - 45 runs, 1 out (141 SR)

During MI vs RCB Matches

Most runs
769 - Virat Kohli
693 - AB de Villiers
566 - Rohit Sharma
551 - Kieron Pollard

Most Sixes
34 - AB de Villiers
32 - Kieron Pollard
27 - Virat Kohli
25 - Rohit Sharma

Highest Score
133* - AB de Villiers
99 - Ishan Kishan
94 - Rohit Sharma
92* - Virat Kohli/Chris Gayle

Most Wickets
24 - Jasprit Bumrah
22 - Yuzvendra Chahal
18 - Harbhajan Singh
17 - Harshal Patel

Best Bowling fig
5/27 - Harshal Patel
4/9 - Samuel Badree
4/17 - Harshal Patel
4/18 - Dilhara Fernando

Most M.O.M Award
4 - Rohit Sharma
3 - Chris Gayle
2 - ABD/Kallis/Pollard

Form Update (Last season)

Key players to watch :

Rohit Sharma : He had average numbers against RCB with the Average of 29 & SR of 138, but when he gets going, he is so elegant and unstoppable. Right now he is the only batter with 4 'Player of the match' awards against RCB

Suryakumar Yadav: The No.1 T20I batter in the world, who has been in the form of his life. He had an Average of 93 and Strike rate of 166 against RCB In the last 4 outings.

Tim David : He is an enormously successful T20 batsman and has a vast experience of many T20 leagues, a powerful hard-hitter who has the ability to turn a game. In the last 6 Innings for MI, he had the Average of 57.67 and a humongous SR of 230.67

Harshal Patel : There are few bowlers who have outplayed batsman by their slow balls; He was one of them. Within a short span, he has proved his bowling skills and has tremendous numbers against MI. He has a bowling average of 12.80 against MI including a Fifer & Hat-trick. This was the best bowling average against any opponent in the IPL History.

Fantasy XI