Plot:

The Royal Challengers Bangalore are coming to town in what should be a battle of the heavyweights in any normal IPL season. For RCB, though the Indian Premier League 2017 has been anything but normal. There are the concerns surrounding their bowlers, a common theme in the past, but it’s their batsmen that have been most un-RCB-like this season. The last three innings have seen the powerful line-up manage a score of just 49 against the Kolkata Knight Riders, 134 against the Gujarat Lions and finally 96/9 against Rising Pune Supergiant. Mumbai Indians, on the other hand, have just come off the back of a nail-biter against the Gujarat Lions, which swung our way courtesy some yorker magic from our resident Mr. Fixit, Jasprit Bumrah.

It’s a battle between 2nd and 7th and a galaxy of stars will be on show at the Wankhede, come Monday afternoon. The previous time both sides locked horns, Mumbai as is their habit this season, scripted an unlikely victory from the jaws of defeat. Kieron Pollard and Krunal Pandya stitched together a 93-run stand after Mumbai were 33/5 after 8 overs, in the pursuit of 144 for victory.

However, don’t expect Virat Kohli’s men to go down without a fight: Their team is hurting and will surely be up for anything and everything that Mumbai throws at them. What’s at stake? A chance to seal a top-4 berth for Mumbai. Royal Challengers Bangalore can still mathematically make it through to the top-4, but need victories and other results to go their way. One thing is for sure, though, this contest will be fought for, tooth and nail.

Stage:

Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai

This is the penultimate home match for us, before the team embarks on away matches at Delhi (May 6th) and Hyderabad (May 8th). The average first innings score this season has been 163, with us currently maintaining a 4-1 win-loss record at our fortress. The only other day match played at the Wankhede this season saw Gujarat post 176 batting first, before Nitish Rana and Rohit Sharma calmly took us home with three balls (and 6 wickets) to spare.

Acts:

Mitchell McClenaghan vs Virat Kohli

It boils down to this: It’s our gun bowler versus RCB’s gun batsman. McClenaghan has dismissed Kohli thrice in the IPL, in 26 balls, with Virat only scoring at 69 runs/100 balls against him. The big Kiwi hasn’t dismissed anyone more often. McClenaghan has also accounted for Virat in the last two encounters between these two sides making this a potential game-deciding clash.

Rohit Sharma vs Samuel Badree

Badree bowled an absolute jaffa to Rohit that completely out-foxed our skipper, as he fell victim to his hat-trick ball at the Chinnaswamy earlier this season. Badree has proven to be a doughty opponent for other teams as well, having picked up one fewer wicket than Yuzvendra Chahal, RCB’s most prolific wicket-taker this season, despite playing four fewer games. Rohit Sharma has shown glimpses of form, notably a 40* against the Gujarat Lions and a 58 against the Supergiant, albeit in a losing cause.

Kieron Pollard v Pawan Negi

The battle of the all-rounders! Negi was a shining light in RCB’s dismal performance against RPS, going at just 4-and-a-half runs to the over, when his teammates all went at 7-and-a-half or above. Last game, though, he was pummeled by Pollard, conceding 23 runs off 8 balls bowled. With Pollard, looking set for a big score again, watch out for this contest-within-a-contest!

Krunal Pandya vs AB de Villiers

Mr. 360o has struggled to get our slow left-arm orthodox bowler away, with Krunal conceding just 12 runs in 21 balls against the belligerent South African. Crucially, he’s dismissed him thrice in the IPL and hasn’t dismissed a batsman more often in this tournament.

Stats:

⦁    Nitish Rana has hit 17 sixes this tournament, the same amount as Kohli’s (6) and Gayle’s (11) aggregate this season.
⦁    RCB’s spinners have taken 29 wickets at an average of 19.66 and an economy rate of 7.47. Their pacers have taken 21 wickets at an average of 39.39 and an economy rate of 9.15
⦁    Rohit Sharma needs 9 runs to become the 4th player to reach 4000 IPL runs.
⦁    Lasith Malinga needs 1 wicket to be the first bowler to claim 150 IPL wickets
⦁    Kieron Pollard’s strike rate of 168.48 against RCB is the best by any player against this team, with a minimum cut-off of 150 balls faced.