The Indian Premier League is back in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday as the Mumbai Indians continue their title defence when they go up against the dangerous Rajasthan Royals in the latest offering of the huge franchise competition.
Both teams will be looking for a victory which makes their top four claims a lot stronger and with some of the best T20 exponents in the world on show in this match we should be treated to a cracking contest.
Mumbai Indians
It hasn’t been all plain sailing for the Mumbai Indians in this tournament but they appear to be coming to the boil quite nicely. They have won three of their last four matches and the one they lost in that time was on a Super Over in a contest they probably should have got over the line in during normal time so it would appear that the defending champions are very much on course to launch a real tilt at a successful title defence.
The key reason why they are going so well has been their batsmen. Since the opening match the lowest score they have put up has been 191/4 and it isn’t like they have been playing all their matches in Sharjah where the scoring is higher either. Two of those outings have been here in Abu Dhabi. It took a while for their bowling to come to the fore but that looks to be heading in the right direction so the Indians are looking good.
Rajasthan Royals
The Rajasthan Royals flew out of the traps this season with two wins from their opening two matches but they have fallen away quite tamely since then so they will be going into this match determined to right the ship and get it sailing in the right direction once again. Their defeat to the Royal Challengers Bangalore last time out will have been particularly concerning as they were flat throughout against an average side at best.
The Royals won’t need to search too deep to work out what has been going wrong for them in the last two matches. They have posted just 137/9 and 154/6 in those games and that isn’t going to cut it this early in the competition. Even the 137/9 was only as high as that because Tom Curran got a few away when the game was dead. They need players like Sanju Samson and Robin Uthappa to find their best form again and fast.
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Key Men
Quinton de Kock came to the party in the last match for the Mumbai Indians and if he can get the side off to a quick start here and lay a platform for the likes of Hardik Pandya and Kieron Pollard to launch from the champions will be in a good place.
Sanju Samson started the tournament in blistering touch with 74 and 85 but since then he has registered scored of 8 and 4 and his side have struggled as a result. There is a light element to the Royals batting until Ben Stokes arrives so they really need their number three back on song.
Betting
I’m expecting a pretty comfortable win for the Mumbai Indians here. They are just playing the better cricket and I think they have more of the bases covered than the Rajasthan Royals at present. Clearly Mumbai are batting a lot better than their opponents here and they are beginning to work it out with the ball, and there could even be more to come from them in that department as well, especially if the likes of Kieron Pollard are utilised more.
There appears to be no weakness in the Mumbai side whereas a few cracks are just starting to appear in the ranks of the Royals. Their top order has stopped firing and it is going to be hard to get away from Mumbai later on in their batting innings so if that doesn’t change this could be a long evening for Rajasthan. If you take Jofra Archer out their attack has been quite leaky as well and that is not a good combination. I’ll take Mumbai to cover a pretty small handicap here.
Tips
WON – Back Mumbai Indians (-2.5wickets/6.5runs) to beat Rajasthan Royals for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with Bet365
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