Mumbai set sights on top spot as Rajasthan look to bounce back

Mohammad Abdullah, Staff Reporter

A confident Mumbai Indians (MI) will look to keep their winning momentum going against a beleaguered Rajasthan Royals in their Indian Premier League (IPL) match on Tuesday.

After three wins from their five games, Mumbai are on the top of the standings with six points. After a topsy-turvy fortnight, all the teams are trying to gain some meaningful lead to consolidate their position in the top four.

Mumbai defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad convincingly by 34 runs on Sunday. Once again they posted a huge total of 208/5, and restricted Hyderabad to 174/7. Quinton De Kock returned to the form with a fine knock of 67 off 39 balls.

De Kock was the only batsmen in their line-up who was not clicking as before. He also heralded his return to form with a match-winning knock against Hyderabad.

Krunal Pandya also exuded his hard-hitting skills with a quick-fire 20 offf just four deliveries with the help of two boundaries and as many sixes.

In five matches, Mumbai have crossed the 180-run mark four times and 200 twice. Their batsmen are in the exhilarating form and have lived up to the expectations in almost every match.

Kieron Pollard is in stupendous touch and played three exceptional innings in the last three matches to play a vital role in the teams’ winning run.

Pollard took a whopping 68 runs in the final four overs along with Hardik Pandya to take the match beyond Kings XI Punjab reach after a Mumbai were struggling with 122/4 in 16 overs.

He also smacked a 24-ball 60, scoring 89 runs in the last five overs along with Ishan Kishan, who also smashed 99 off 58 balls as the duo took the match to Super Over against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) after they were effectively written off.

Apart from Pollard, captain Rohit Sharma himself is great touch and leading from the front. Rohit has amassed 176 runs in five innings with two fifties at an average of 35.

In the bowling, they seem to be missing their pace spearhead Lasith Malinga, who pulled out due to personal reasons. He was desperately missed in the Super Over against Bangalore.

However, James Pattinson, Trent Boult and Jasprit Bumrah have done pretty well. Rahul Chahar and Washington Sundar are handling the responsibility of spin attack quite well.

All the pacers Bumrah, Boult and Pattinson took two wickets each, conceding 41, 28 and 29 runs respectively against Hyderabad.

On the other hand, chips are down in the Rajasthan camp after two straight losses. After getting their campaign off to a flying start with two consecutive wins, they were derailed by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).

Against Kolkata they failed to chase a mediocre target of 174. In the next match, Bangalore also defeated them by eight wickets. Rajasthan captain Steve Smith admitted that they were not up the mark in their last two games.

“The last two matches have not been as per our plans after a very good start to the tournament. But I think that is T20 cricket all about. We have not played our best cricket in the last two matches and have been outclassed by our opponents on both the occasions,” said Smith in a statement released by the team.

“It is the time to regroup again and play our best game and put some wins on the board,” he added.

“I hope to be back among the runs once again. I have not done well in the last two matches but that happens. We will also see which players fit in our plans for Mumbai match,” he concluded.