The second part of the Sunday double header in the Indian Premier League sees the action moving back to Abu Dhabi when the Rajasthan Royals take on the Mumbai Indians in what is do or die for Steve Smith and his men now.
The Royals go into this match knowing that if they are going to make it into the postseason they will need to win their final three games. Mumbai have no such concerns. They will be in the play-offs, for them it is about how high they finish.
Rajasthan Royals
It looked like the Rajasthan Royals were gathering themselves into a position where they could launch a real bash at the top four places but their run came to a shuddering halt last time out in a big match against the Sunrisers Hyderabad when their bowling just wasn’t up to the job. Ironically they had done all the hard work in getting rid of the Sunrisers’ openers but their change bowlers were absolutely terrible and they are back behind the eight ball again.
The other issue the Royals have going into this game as well as the fact they are under pressure to win and certain elements of their bowling attack have question marks hanging over them is their batting order doesn’t look quite right. Ben Stokes has struggled as an opener and it will be interesting to see if they switch him and Jos Buttler around in a bid to get a little more out of the powerplay overs to take the pressure off those batsmen down the order.
Mumbai Indians
After a surprise defeat in that incredible double Super Over match last weekend, the Mumbai Indians bounced back in style on Friday when they took care of a disappointing Chennai Super Kings outfit in a match they had under their control right from the start and never let their grip on the contest go. That was a good bounce back for a couple of reasons, firstly overcoming disappointment is never easy and secondly because they were without their captain Rohit Sharma.
That allowed the Indians to show their strength in depth and we saw in fine style what they are about. A brilliant bowling performance set up the win and took the pressure off the batting effort enough for the new opening partnership to spring into life. From here on in for the Mumbai Indians it is all about gathering momentum so that they hit the play-offs in top form to give them the best chance of defending their title.
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Key Men
If the Rajasthan Royals are going to get into this match then they have to keep the Mumbai openers quiet and take early wickets. That means the new ball spell of Jofra Archer is going to be vital. It might be worth giving him three overs in the powerplay if he is on song.
Quinton de Kock has been in decent enough touch in recent times but Archer is very good bowling to left-handers. If the South African can negate his spell it will put the Indians comfortably in front in the match so their battle is key.
Betting
Usually I would be looking to take the under in the total runs line here at Abu Dhabi but I’m leaning the other way here for a few reasons. The first of those is the fact that the line is quite low at 312.5, much lower than we have seen throughout the competition. Secondly the pitch looked to be playing very well here on Saturday when Kolkata nearly ran up 200 runs although some concern would be whether that was assisted by a terrible bowling performance from Delhi. Finally this Rajasthan attack has just been carted to all parts by a batsman who you wouldn’t consider the most powerful in the event.
That makes me think the over is the one to be on here. If Sunrisers Hyderabad are carting this Rajasthan bowling attack to all parts then this extremely powerful Mumbai Indians batting line up is likely to do some damage to it and you’ve got to think Rajasthan are likely to target a higher score than usual to combat that. We saw on Saturday that one of the boundaries are very short which should keep the runs ticking over so I’ll take the over here.
Tips
WON – Back Over 312.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Betway
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