Its the battle of the big boys at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Wednesday night when the Mumbai Indians take on the Royal Challengers Bangalore in a crucial league match. Mumbai Indians are sitting pretty at No.3 in the points table with 14 points in the bag and need to win just a couple of more games to qualify for the play offs and would dearly love to win tonight and get a step closer to the knock out stages. On the other hand, RCB have certainly found the going tough in this season so far with just 11 points in 11 games and are languishinfg at the 7th place in the points table. They need to win 3 out of their remaining 5 games to reach the play offs and it is going to be a tough road ahead for them if they lose tonight.
Mumbai Indians are coming off a fabulous victory over the reigning champions Chennai Super Kings courtesy a mind boggling knock by Dwayne Smith. Sachin Tendulkar too found form in the last game and was the architect of their victory with a 44 ball 74. He and Franklin at the top of the order hold the key as far as Mumbai Indians are concerned and will be expecting a good start from them. The middle order is packed with young Indian talent in the likes of Rohit Sharma, Ambati Rayudu and Dinesh Karthik and all of them have won matches for their side in crunch situations. Although , Mumbai have lost Pollard due to injury, another West Indian Dwayne Smith has done his job pretty well and has filled in the shoes of Kieron Pollard. The trump card for the Mumbai Indians with the ball has been Lasith Malinga and has kept things tight in the death overs. With quality spinners like Harbhajan Singh and Robin Peterson in their armoury, Mumbai Indians are surely going to be a tough nut to crack for the Royal Challengers.
Royal Challengers too like the Mumbai Indians are coming of a fantastic win over the Deccan Chargers and AB de Villiers was the hero for them who scored a blistering 47 unbeaten in just 17 deliveries. RCB had to leave out Daniel Vettori in the previous match so as to accomodate Muralitharan in the team and it worked out well too. Chris Gayle and T. Dilshan have been in superb touch with the bat and are providing the kind of start that RCB need. Virat Kohli and Saurabh Tiwary are still not playing at their best, but with AB de Villiers in the kind of form that he is has been demolishing the opposition completely. He has been doing the job of a finisher expertly and winning matches for RCB single handedly. The bowling heavily relies on Zaheer Khan and Muralitharan, with others supporting them. RCB are a good side and are going to give Mumbai Indians a tough fight. The crowd are going to get their moneys worth tonight as MI vs RCB promises to be the Battle of the Giants.
PLAYERS TO WATCH OUT
MUMBAI INDIANS-Tendulkar, Rohit Sharma, Malinga, Dwayne Smith.
ROYAL CHALLENGERS-Gayle, Dilshan,de Villiers, Kohli.
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