1. Overview:
Two of the most popular Indian batsmen – Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma will be facing each other in this rivalry week. Having many records under their name, currently both might be feeling the pressure for varying reason. Rohit Sharma is struggling to score runs as he has been dismissed on 2 ducks in a row, Virat Kohli’s Strike Rate has become an area of concern. With 5 Wins and 5 Losses each, both sides would be hoping for these legends to overcome their issues.
2. Team Previews:
Head-to-Head Record: 31 Matches, MI: 17 Wins and RCB: 14 Wins
Mumbai Indians:Their batting looks decent with Tilak Varma, Cameron Green, Tim David and Suryakumar Yadav contributing regularly but it’s their regular openers – Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan, who aren’t providing the starts they might want to have. Ishan might have match winning half-centuries to his name but has nothing in between. After making MI wait for a season, Jofra Archer has only leaked runs without being dreadful. After giving away his opening slot to Green last match, there are huge chances that Rohit Sharma would hand captaincy to SKY once again and opts to rest.
Royal Challengers Bangalore: RCB’s Story is exact opposite as their batting has been very inconsistent and highly depends on their opening pair – Faf Du Plessis and Virat Kohli. Glenn Maxwell hasn’t done anything notable while Dinesh Karthik, who impressed last season, has failed completely with the bat. Their bowling yet remains a problem as barring Mohammed Siraj, their bowlers has failed to leave any impact.
3. Probable XI:
Mumbai Indians: Cameron Green, Ishan Kishan (WK), Rohit Sharma (C), Nehal Wadhera, Suryakumar Yadav, Tristan Stubbs, Tim David, Arshad Khan, Jofra Archer / Jason Behrendoff, Piyush Chawla, Akash Madhwal (Impact Player - Raghav Goyal)
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Faf du Plessis (C), Virat Kohli, Anuj Rawat, Glenn Maxwell, Mahipal Lomror, Dinesh Karthik (WK), Harshal Patel, Wanindu Hasaranga, Karn Sharma, Josh Hazlewood, Mohammed Siraj. (Impact Player - Kedar Jadhav)
4. Interesting Facts:
1) Suryakumar Yadav (2937) needs 63 Runs to complete 3000 Runs in IPL.
2) Faf Du Plessis (3914) needs 86 Runs to complete 4000 Runs in IPL.
3) Jofra Archer (48) Needs 2 more wickets to complete 50 IPL Wickets.
4) Piyush Chawla (293) needs 7 Wickets to complete 300 T20 Wickets.
5) Wanindu Hasaranga de Silva (195) needs 5 more wickets to complete 200 T20 Wickets
His Dismissal against DC, in his last match was Glenn Maxwell’s 100th Dismissal in IPL.
6) Rohit Sharma(16) now has most Ducks in IPL. Currently he is on a hattrick of ducks after scoring 2 consecutive Ducks in his last 2 matches.
7) Rohit Sharma (98) needs just 2 more catches to complete 100 catches in IPL. So far only 3 Players have grabbed more than 100 Catches in the tournament – Suresh Raina (109), Kieron Pollard (103) and Virat Kohli (103).
5. Weather and Pitch Report:
The temperature is expected to be around 25-30. Last 4 innings at Wankhede have went above 200 and the same can be expected from this match too. Spinners might be of some assistance though. Toss winning team would like to chase as no total is safe here.
6. Match Details:
Time: 7:30 PM
Date: 9th May 2023
Venue: Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai
7. Dream XI:
