Two star-studded sides, Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Defending Champions Mumbai Indians have had a rough restart to IPL 2021 and have both lost 2 games on the trot since the resumption of the league. MI have won eight out of the last 12 matches that have been played between these two teams but Virat Kohli’s RCB won the inaugural match of this edition through an AB De Villiers masterclass. With the race for the Playoffs heating up, here are 3 reasons why the Sunday evening blockbuster could provide us with plenty of entertainment:
1. AB De Villiers’ battle vs Mumbai’s bowling unit
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Mr. 360, ABD, has historically been brilliant vs the frontline seamers of MI – with strike rates of 144 and a whopping 262 vs Jasprit Bumrah and Trent Boult. That, however, changes drastically vs the wily left-arm spin of Krunal Pandya who has dismissed ABD 4 times in 7 innings and also Kieron Pollard whose changes of pace have dismissed De Villiers 4 times in 8 innings with AB only scoring 33 runs vs the West Indian from 33 balls. It will be great to see how Rohit Sharma uses match-ups to utilise the overs of his bowlers when ABD comes in to bat.
2. Yuzi Chahal vs Rahul Chahar – the old vs the new
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Yuzvendra Chahal has been replaced by the aggressive, impressive Rahul Chahar in India’s T20 World Cup squad and bragging rights will be up for grabs when both leggies go head to head in this encounter. Chahal has dismissed Quinton De Kock 4 times in 6 innings so might be used in the PowerPlay, more so because Ishan Kishan and Kieron Pollard seem to love facing him, with strike rates of 216 and 154 vs the RCB leg-spinner. Chahar has 11 wickets already this season, almost double of Chahal, but has his worst record vs RCB with just 2 wickets in 4 matches at an economy of 9.3 so this will be a great test for Rahul Chahar.
3. Virat Kohli vs Rohit Sharma: The battle of the greats
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The current Indian skipper vs the (potential) future Captain is a battle worth watching, especially since their respective records when they face each other is poor by their lofty standards. In 16 matches that Kohli has captained RCB vs Rohit’s MI, they have won only five and Virat has just three 50s in 27 innings vs MI. Kohli is also just 13 runs short of becoming the fifth player overall & 2nd fastest man after Chris Gayle to score 10,000 T20 runs.
Rohit has slightly better numbers with seven 50s in 27 innings against RCB, but finds himself in a tough spot at the moment with MI losing both games on return and so his form will be critical in this encounter.
[Image Credit: ANI]
Suhail Chandhok
Vertical Head - Sports