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Both teams are likely to want to chase at the Wankhede
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RCB's go-slow approach may cost them
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Excellent wicket may see a century being scored
Tuesday May 9, 15:00
TV: Live on Sky Sports
Mumbai Team News
Mumbai took the curious decision to mix things up against CSK. Curious because they were coming into the match on the back of an excellent chase of 215 against Punjab.
Rather than focusing on the fact they conceded so many in that previous match, they decided to strengthen their batting. In came Tristan Stubbs at number seven and for good measure, they also swapped Cameron Green and Rohit Sharma, with the Aussie all-rounder opening and the skipper down at three.
Ironically the addition of the extra overseas batsman saw them put in one of their worst performances with the bat, managing just 139 with the unheralded Nehal Wadhera the only one making a score of note with 64 off 51.
It was never going to be enough and so it proved. They lost with 14 balls to spare and rather than being bang in contention for the Playoffs, they lost points and momentum. It may well be a match that costs them in the long run.
It will be interesting to see what changes they make, if any, this time.
Possible XI: Green, Kishan, Sharma, Wadhera, Yadav, Stubbs, David, Khan, Archer, Chawla, Madhwal, Goyal.
RCB Team news
RCB were on the receiving end of a Phil Salt masterclass on Saturday.
Having posted 181/4 Bangalore would have felt they had a good score on the board. But the England man had other ideas and his 87 off 45 always had Delhi ahead of the game from the moment tey started the chase. In the end good (and quick) knocks from overseas duo Mitchell Marsh and Riley Rossouw saw them home with a remarkable 20 balls to spare.
It was one of the few instances we've seen in the IPL over the years of a side playing overseas batsmen in all of the Top 4 positions, with David Warner the other.
In truth their hand was forced by the fact that Anrich Nortje was unavailable and Mustafizur Rahman has left the IPL for the season to report for international duty.
Nortje will surely return to the team when he's available but till that happens, they'll have one of the most fearsome Top 4s in the competition. They may well still need to win at least three of their last four to come close to the Playoffs but they've certainly improved of late.
Possible XI: Warner. Salt, Marsh, Rossouw, Pandey, Patel, Hakim Khan, Yadav, Kumar, Ahmed, Patel.
Pitch report
We're at the Wankhede for this one.
Last time we were here was when Mumbai chased 213 against Rajasthan, one of several fine chases they've executed this season.
But those first innings numbers are considerably higher than the average over the years, where the first innings runs have historically been 167.1.
You want to be chasing here though, with 55/103 matches won by the chaser in Mumbai.
Both sides would want to bowl first anyway given their strength is arguably in their batting and they both look better suited to knowing what the target is and going after it. In that sense they'll both feel more in control batting second.
How to play
It's evens the pair, which looks about right at first glance.
But Mumbai know this ground very well and their more fearless approach with the bat, prepared to sacrifice wickets in exchange for quick runs, may be better suited to what should be a high-scoring wicket.
Take Virat Kohli, for example. His 419 runs and five fifties may look good on paper but his season strike rate of 135 doesn't look so good. He'll often get starts and has got to 50 in half of his matches but the pace of his scoring puts too much pressure on the middle-order to accelerate, something they haven't often been able to do.
Mumbai batting second at anything above 2.26/5, should RCB make a decent start, could be the way to go.
Top RCB Batsman
Mahipal Lomror's 54 off 29 against Delhi was exactly the sort of innings RCB needed to be playing after yet another typical Kohli innings (55 off 46) put them under pressure.
They don't generally like bringing in Glenn Maxwell at three because it makes their batting top-heavy; he got out first ball last time anyway.
So Lomror, who has admittedly had a lean season bar that innings, may get a promotion to three. Fresh from a fine knock last time out and batting high up, he's no 9/1 chance.
Tonne up?
There have been three centuries scored so far this season (V Iyer, Harry Brook, and Yashavi Jaiswal) with a further four players getting scores in the 90s, including a 99 not out by Shikhar Dhawan.
An excellent wicket, small boundaries, four good openers and somewhat suspect bowling attacks may all create a perfect storm for a fourth century of the season being scored here.
The 7/1 on a first-innings century is worth taking.