The second half of the double header of action in the Indian Premier League on Saturday comes from Pune as the Royal Challengers Bangalore take on the former champions Mumbai Indians in a heavyweight showdown.
These two teams have had different beginnings to their season. Bangalore have a couple of wins from three while Mumbai have had their usual slow start to a campaign and will be eager to get up and running here.
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Despite not really making me feel that they have been at their best, the Royal Challengers Bangalore have won two of their opening three matches and had they not felt the full force of a Punjab Kings batting blitz in their first match they could easily be sat on three wins from three matches. I said right at the outset that Bangalore will be a side who improves as the campaign goes on with big players to come into the fold and now is the time to see whether that is the case.
Glenn Maxwell is expected to make his season bow for the Royal Challengers in this match which will strengthen the batting and offer Faf du Plessis another bowling option should he require it. As with most matches in the competition both of the Bangalore wins have come chasing a score so there is a slight concern that they won’t be able to defend a score but they have shown in both of those victories that they have plenty of batting depth.
Mumbai Indians
While seeing the Mumbai Indians fall out of the starting blocks is nothing new, they will start to be getting concerned after their opening three defeats. They certainly won’t want to open up with a fourth defeat on the spin. The real issue that will be worrying them is the margins they have been beaten by. They have lost the two matches they have batted first with 10 balls and 24 balls to spare and were beaten by 23 runs in the match they chased in. They haven’t really been competitive at all.
One of the reasons for that is because as a team they are going at over 9.5 an over with the ball. That is incredible when you consider the talent they have in their bowling attack. I’m always critical of sides who panic early in the season and make changes but Mumbai have to make at least one here because Daniel Sams has bowled 11 overs in the competition and gone for 139 in them for the gain of one wicket. He might offer batting depth but he’ll have to score some to pay that back.
Key Players
You sense this Royal Challengers Bangalore batting has needed a spark in the middle order and Glenn Maxwell should certainly be able to provide that. If his off spin can also take care of the left-handers in the Mumbai side that would be a bonus.
Jasprit Bumrah is going at more than eight an over without really taking wickets in the competition at the minute. He has bowled 10.2 overs and taken 3/86 which is unlike him. With the other bowlers getting carted Mumbai need their talisman to be counted here.
Betting
This ground in Pune has had two matches where the sixes have really flowed and I think this can be the third such case. One of those matches involved the Mumbai Indians when they took on the Kolkata Knight Riders and although 161/4 was the first innings score there were still 20 sixes in that match. That Knight Riders attack doesn’t usually go round the park but Mumbai were able to get after it which offers hope that they will be able to do the same to this Bangalore attack.
You would expect Bangalore to be able to get at this Mumbai attack the way they are going round the park at the minute. Pat Cummins is a clean hitter of the ball when he connects with it and he hit six sixes against Mumbai here last time out but he isn’t exactly a Faf du Plessis, Glenn Maxwell or Dinesh Karthik with the bat. Both these teams are expected to have decent hitters walking out at eight in this match so there is no worries with batting depth and on a small ground I fancy we’ll sail to 15 sixes in this one.
Tips
Back Over 14.5 sixes for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with Betway
