Mumbai would take a lot of positives from the victory over KKR into Monday’s contest. Skipper Rohit Sharma led from the front with 80 off 54 balls while Suryakumar Yadav also contributed a fluent 47 from 28. They have a strong batting line-up in Quinton de Kock, Kieron Pollard and the Pandya brothers, which is waiting to come to the party. Saurabh Tiwary has been a pleasing surprise for the side with two good cameos.
In the bowling department, the pacers excelled against KKR. The trio of James Pattinson, Trent Boult and Jasprit Bumrah all kept things extremely tight while also picking up a couple of wickets each. Rahul Chahar too impressed with his leg spin while Kieron Pollard claimed his first IPL wicket since 2015.
RCB go into the match having been battered and bruised by KXIP. First, KL Rahul tonked the bowlers all over the mark during his unbeaten 132 from 69 balls. Then, their batting completely fell apart in the chase, as they crumbled to 109 all out under pressure. RCB skipper Virat Kohli had a particularly miserable outing, dropping catches and failing to make an impression with the bat. Kohli will be pumped up to turn things around
RCB will have to take a re-look at their bowling attack. Umesh Yadav has been totally wayward across the two games while Dale Steyn has also failed to make an impact. Yuzvendra Chahal has been the team’s best bowler by a distance. In the batting department, they would want to see some quick runs from Aaron Finch at the top of the order.
Head to Head Record: RCB and MI have faced each other 27 times with MI winning 18 and RCB only 9.
RCB Predicted XI: Aaron Finch, Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli (C), AB de Villiers, Josh Philippe (WK), Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Chris Morris/Dale Steyn, Navdeep Saini, Yuzvendra Chahal and Umesh Yadav/Mohammed Siraj
MI Predicted XI: Quinton de Kock (WK), Rohit Sharma (C), Suryakumar Yadav, Kieron Pollard, Saurabh Tiwary, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, James Pattinson, Rahul Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah and Trent Bout
Pitch Report
The pitch at Dubai is a decent one for batting with some help for bowlers as well. Spinners have done well in the middle overs. With dew around, teams would want to chase, but must ensure they do not give away too many with the ball.
Weather conditions
Conditions will be hot and sunny with maximum temperature around 38 degree and humidity 49.
--Renin Wilben