Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore are to face each other for the 6th win in Match 54 of TATA IPL 2023 on May 09, 2023. Wankhede Stadium will host the battle between the current and former captain of Team India. Any team that wins the match not just adds two more points to the leaderboard but also inches closer to qualifying for the top four teams.
RR losing to SRH comes as a shock for RR looked promising at the beginning. This very event changed a few dynamics, opening the doors for MI and RCB to attempt qualification in the tournament.
RCB will look at the new addition to the squad, Kedar Jadhav, to bat well and rely a bit on Siraj to pick an early wicket of the MI skipper.MI could respond to the attack with their 360-degree player, Suryakumar Yadav, and call on the strengths of Cameron Green.
RCB’s Key Players
Bangalore is the only team with two batters in the top five for the race of Orange Cap. Notably, both are openers, Kohli and Plessis. They have registered 419 runs and 511 runs in 10 innings, respectively. Harshal Patel and Siraj will take the chance to bowl early. They have picked 12 and 15 wickets, respectively, so far.
RCB has better options in terms of all-rounders. Maxwell does not do his job fairly, but the Australian batter/bowler has the potential to finish the match in the death overs. Dinesh Karthik takes a lot of pressure off despite being a low-scorer till now.
Openers will once again go on to hit some big shots. Wankhede is a batter’s pitch, anyway. Siraj will have to absorb the pressure in the powerplay instead of coming strong with unnecessary aggression.
MI’s Key Players
Rohit Sharma sets the field simply to play with the minds of his opponent. Plus, the MI skipper purely goes by the data to back his placements. His bat may have been silent in the tournament; there is no doubt that he will come out with a strong plan for the RCB opener.
SKY appears to be coming back to his form. His 66-off-31 balls helped MI chase a massive target of 215 versus Punjab Kings at Punjab Cricket Association Stadium. His efforts were complemented by Ishan Kishan’s 75-off-41 balls. Rohit may have registered most ducks in the tournament, but he has a soft cushion in the batting line-up he can rely on.
Cameron Green will have a chance to play the role of an all-rounder. Jofra Archer is less likely to come as a surprise. Watch out for Piyush Chawla’s experience, for the bowler has even made it to the 4th spot in the race of Purple Cap with 17 wickets in 10 innings.
Comparison Of Key Players
It is better to look at the entire squad altogether. RCB features a rather long list of all-rounders as compared to MI. This appears as if MI has limited options. That is true, by the way, but it also allows them to focus solely on their specialty.
The batting line-up for both sides will see RCB openers clash with Ishan Kishan and SKY. The bowling line-up of Plessis will be up against Chawla’s witty spin, while MI will have to find a way to circumvent four overs of Siraj.
Wankhede can see a big run chase made exciting by MI’s SKY and Kishan. RCB losing its openers early, probably in the powerplay, will bring a lot of pressure on the remaining batting line-up. One can also not ignore the competition that SKY will face against Harshal Patel, 13th on the list of Purple Cap with 12 wickets.
Importance Of All-Rounders
MI will feel a pinch with limited options in the department. RCB, on the other hand, will unleash Harshal Patel and Maxwell for bigger shots. Cameron Green for MI has a bigger role to play. He opened against CSK only to go back with 6 runs off 4 balls. The score is surely a small one, but it still manages to give some relief to Sharma, who may not want to open against RCB.
All-rounders are likely to come into the picture as a savior for the pitch that requires bowlers to restrict the batters and batters to find gaps for a perfect shot.RCB will see Harshal Patel in action. MI will give Green a chance to prove his place.
Prediction And Conclusion
Home grounds often give advantages to the hosts. For a change, RCB enters the stadium with a higher chance of winning, 52%, on some of the best cricket betting sites. MI is not far since it still has a 48% chance to add 2 more points to their names.
As per expectations, RCB will be led by their openers with Siraj. As for MI, Ishan Kishan, plus SKY and Chawla, should do the trick.
