Royal Challengers Bangalore hope to return to winning ways against resurgent Mumbai Indians

As the battle for the top four spots in IPL 2023 intensifies, fifth-placed Royal Challengers Bangalore will be taking the yard against the might of sixth-placed Mumbai Indians in a cut-and-run encounter at the Wankhede. Both sides have won five fixtures out of the ten that they have played so far. RCB holds the fifth place, courtesy of a better net run rate of -0.209 while Mumbai has a net run rate of -0.454.

Royal Challengers Bangalore will be coming to this fixture on the back of a defeat against the Delhi Capitals despite a powerful show from their batters that was led by Faf Du Plessis, Mahipal Lomror and Virat Kohli. Their bowlers ran ashore, losing steam in front of a rampant Phil Salt who took the game away from RCB.

Mumbai Indians suffered a similar fate as their batters were humbled by a fiery CSK bowling unit, while their bowlers could hardly throw in a spanner in the works of the Yellow Army as they steered past the finish line without breaking a sweat. Nehal Wadhera fought with a well-constructed 64 but the lack of support at the other end stung Mumbai in a devastating manner.

The last time these two teams collided, it was the opening chapter for both the sides in IPL 2023 and RCB ran away with the game as their skipper Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli steered the Royal Challengers across the finishing line after a decent show from the RCB bowlers.

Venue Watch

Wankhede is usually known for its magnanimous help towards the batters and there isn’t much movement that the bowlers can eke out from the surface. The spinners may have an early say but as the track gets old and dew sets in, it is going to be a paradise for the team batting second.

Personal battles to watch out for:

Faf du Plessis vs Jofra Archer 

Faf du Plessis is currently acing the race for the Orange Cap with a tally of 511 runs at an average of 56.77 while his swashbuckling starts have allowed RCB to make decent headway early in the innings. Jofra Archer may not have hit the exact stride that he would have wanted but his fragmented bursts of brilliance have been ringing loud enough for any batter in the tournament to take notice and his pace vs Faf’s flamboyance could be a battle to look out for.

Virat Kohli vs Piyush Chawla

Virat Kohli is the second-highest scorer of the side for IPL 2023 with 419 runs at an average of 46.55. With two half-centuries in the last three games, he would be a major cog in the wheel for RCB. Piyush Chawla has been in the form of his life as he has bagged 17 wickets so far and Virat’s slight vulnerability against spin will make this an intriguing contest to savour.

Josh Hazlewood vs Suryakumar Yadav

Josh Hazlewood will be hoping to carry on with his good form against the Mumbai Indians. He has already amassed three wickets from the first two games that he played and will be raring to go up against one of the most luminescent prospects in Indian cricket currently, Suryakumar Yadav, who has slowly surged up to the top of the run-scoring charts for Mumbai Indians despite a slow start.

Match detail:

Match: Mumbai Indians vs Royal Challengers Bangalore

Venue: Wankhede Stadium

Date: 9th May, 2023

Time: 7:30 PM

Head-to-head:

Matches played: 31

MI: 17

RCB: 13

Squads:

Royal Challengers Bangalore:

Faf Du Plessis (C), Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, Mohammad Siraj, Harshal Patel, Wanindu Hasaranga, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Shahbaz Ahmed, Anuj Rawat, Akash Deep, Josh Hazlewood, Mahipal Lomror, Finn Allen, Suyash Prabhudessai, Karn Sharma, Siddharth Kaul, Kedar Jadhav, Wayne Parnell, Himanshu Sharma, Manoj Bhandage, Rajan Kumar, Avinash Singh, Sonu Yadav, Michael Bracewell, Vijaykumar Vyshak

Mumbai Indians:

Rohit Sharma (C), Sandeep Warrier, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan (wk), Dewald Brevis, Tilak Varma, Jofra Archer, Tim David, Mohd Arshad Khan, Ramandeep Singh, Hrithik Shokeen, Arjun Tendulkar, Tristan Stubbs, Kumar Kartikeya, Jason Behrendorff, Akash Madhwal, Cameron Green, Riley Meredith, Piyush Chawla, Duan Jansen, Vishnu Vinod, Shams Mulani, Nehal Wadhera, Raghav Goyal.