On Tuesday (May 9), Mumbai Indians (MI) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) will face off in the 54th match of the Indian Premier League 2023 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Both teams have secured five wins each in their ten games and are currently placed fifth and sixth in the points table, respectively. In the previous game against Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians scored 139 runs for the loss of eight wickets in their 20 overs while batting first. Nehal Wadhera emerged as the standout performer for the team as he scored his first half-century of the tournament. Despite his efforts, Chennai Super Kings chased down the target with six wickets in hand and 14 balls to spare, resulting in Mumbai Indians’ first loss after winning two consecutive matches.
In their previous match, RCB faced Delhi Capitals and managed to score a strong total of 181 runs for the loss of four wickets in 20 overs, thanks to half-centuries by Virat Kohli and Mahipal Lomror. However, RCB’s bowlers struggled as DC chased down the target in just 16.4 overs with seven wickets in hand. Faf du Plessis used seven bowlers, but only Wanindu Hasaranga completed his full quota of four overs. All other bowlers had an economy rate of over eight runs per over. Despite being the most successful powerplay team this season with 23 wickets, RCB bowlers could only manage to pick one wicket against DC.
The two sides have clashed 31 times in the IPL to date, with MI prevailing in 17 of those encounters, while RCB have emerged victorious in the remaining 14. However, RCB have been the stronger team against MI in recent years. MI’s last win against RCB came in 2020, and they have since lost four consecutive matches against them.
PROBABLE PLAYING XI
Mumbai Indians
Rohit Sharma(C), T Stubbs, SA Yadav, Tim David, C Green, Piyush Chawla, Arshad Khan, N Wadhera, Ishan Kishan(wk), Jofra Archer, Akash Mandwaal
BENCH : Tilak Varma, H Shokeen, JP Behrendorff, K Kartikeya, Ramandeep Singh, S Sandeep Warrier, AS Tendulkar, Vishnu Vinod, Dewald Brevis, Raghav Goyal, Riley Meredith, SZ Mulani, D Jansen, JA Richardson, CJ Jordan
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Virat Kohli, F du Plessis(C), KM Jadhav, MK Lomror, GJ Maxwell, W Hasaranga, Dinesh Karthik(wk), Anuj Rawat, Mohammed Siraj, KV Sharma, Josh Hazlewood
BENCH : Shahbaz Ahmed, DJ Willey, WD Parnell, HV Patel, SS Prabhudessai, Akash Deep, Michael Bracewell, R Sonu Yadav, RM Patidar, Finn Allen, Avinash Singh, Rajan Kumar, M Bhandage, S Kaul, RJW Topley, Himanshu Sharma, Vijaykumar Vyshak, WG Jacks
PITCH REPORT
The Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai has been the venue for 46 T20 games in the last three years, where the average first-innings score has been over 170 runs. The team batting first has won only 33% of games here, suggesting that bowling might be a preferred option for the team winning the toss on Tuesday. Pacers have been in control on this pitch, accounting for 70% of wickets, while the spinners have only managed to take 30%. This season, the team chasing the target has won four out of five games at this venue.
