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Mumbai Indians (MI) will be taking on Rajasthan Royals (RR) in Match 24th of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 on Thursday (April 29) in Delhi.
The two teams will be arriving into the contest with nearly similar sort of campaigns in the IPL 2021 so far.
Both MI and RR have won two and lost three of their five matches. However, one resides in the upper half of the points table and the other in the lower half only because of the different net run-rate.
The victory for RR could turn the table upside down, and that shall inspire them, even though they’ll be up against the mighty defending champions and five-time IPL winners.
Key Players
The Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma has been the most consistent batsman for his team in the tournament so far. The prodigiously talented right-hand batter scored 201 runs at an average of 40.20 and strike-rate of 130.51 during the Chennai leg of MI’s matches, where they encountered difficult batting conditions. Rohit hasn’t always had the best to start his IPL campaigns, so his initial run of scores augurs well for MI. He now boasts of 5,431 runs in his overall IPL career spanning 205 matches at an average of 31.57 and a strike-rate of 130.61. Rohit’s IPL career tally includes one century and 40 half-centuries.
Suryakumar Yadav hasn’t been as prolific so far as he was in the previous edition of the IPL. The right-hander has made only 154 runs from his five innings at an average of 30.80 and strike-rate of 143.92. Unlike the IPL 2020, where Suryakumar struck 480 runs at an average of 40.00 and strike-rate of 145.01. But going by the numbers alone would be unfair on an otherwise in-form Suryakumar, who has looked to adapt to the role of a middle-order aggressor this season and has shown good intent to keep his team in line with their desired scores, even if that has come at the cost of his own consistency. The quality of Suryakumar’s strokes – be it against pacers or spinners – has remained intact, and he will be raring to perform against RR in Delhi with his team enduring a dip in their results so far.
Jasprit Bumrah has once again been magnificent for MI in the role of the attack leader. The right-arm pace spearhead has been just as effective and efficient with the ball as he was the preceding IPL seasons. Bumrah has taken 4 wickets from 5 outings at an economy rate of only 6.36 in the IPL 2021 so far. Inarguably one of the best modern-day fast-bowlers, Bumrah will be eyeing a continuation of his brilliant form in the all-important fixture against RR. Still quite young, Bumrah is one of MI’s stalwarts and has taken 113 wickets in his 97-match-long overall IPL career at an average of 23.94 and economy rate of 7.35. If the contest against RR in Delhi gets close, Bumrah will be one of MI’s go-to men.
Sanju Samson scored an outstanding century in RR’s opening game of IPL 2021 against Punjab Kings. And though the promising young batter and RR skipper has gone quiet with the bat since, his class and ability are hardly in doubt. Samson can come up with a stellar performance that hits MI like a storm. He is currently at the top of the run-charts among RR batters in IPL 2021 (187 runs from 5 innings, an average of 46.75, a strike rate of 143.84). Samson, who was appointed captain for this season, has been with RR since his maiden IPL campaign back in 2013. The 26-year-old has now made 2,771 runs in his overall career in the league after 112 matches at a strike rate of 134.38.
Jaydev Unadkat, following his brilliant performances with the new ball, is another of RR’s key players. The experienced left-arm pacer has taken four wickets from his three outings since making a comeback to the RR playing XI and has an average of 20.00 with an economy rate of 6.66. Unadkat has used his left-arm angle and the ability to generate seam movement out of Indian tracks to very good effect. The fast-bowler has kept a tight leash on run-scoring in the powerplay field restriction overs, besides threatening to take the wickets. MI batters can’t take Unadkat lightly at all.
Prediction
It’s a battle of the two equals as far as the points table is concerned, but that’s hardly the reality of it.
While MI have underperformed to be losing three of their five matches, RR have done better than people thought they would’ve in winning two of their five games. That is simply because of the number of injuries and prominent absentees the inaugural season champions, who don’t have the best of batting and bowling units anyway, are having to make do without.
MI have found tackling spin a major issue – both with the bat and with the ball – and need to resolve it soon as even though they get out of Chennai, Delhi offers another of those slow, two-paced tracks. But MI’s problems are far lesser than their opposition, and thus, they are expected to win this one over RR.
