Royal Challengers Bangalore seek solutions to old problems against well-drilled Mumbai Indians
Who will bowl the death overs for RCB? And how will Mumbai face the Chahal challenge?
Big picture
In the news
- Morris was unavailable for the Royal Challengers' first two games because of a side strain. It remains to be seen if he has regained full fitness.
- Similarly, the injured Nathan Coulter-Nile missed Mumbai's first two matches, but he has resumed training now. It's understood that he isn't 100% fit yet.
- Mumbai are cautious about Hardik Pandya's workload, opting against rushing him into bowling. He made cameos against Chennai Super Kings and Knight Riders, and even pulled off a stunning catch at the boundary to remove Nitish Rana, but he hasn't bowled in top-flight cricket since September last year after undergoing back surgery.
Likely XIs
Strategy punts
Stats that matter
- The Royal Challengers could consider giving Moeen Ali a go in the middle order in place of either Aaron Finch or Josh Phillipe. Since IPL 2019, Ali has a balls per boundary percentage of 4.8 in the middle overs (7-15) as opposed to Kohli's 12.2. De Villiers has fared better than Kohli in this phase, having a balls per boundary percentage of 7.5.
- Saini has 13 IPL wickets in 15 IPL matches, of which 10 have come at the death. He also goes at over nine an over (9.2) in the slog overs, but he does seem to have more control and variations right now than either of Steyn, Dube or Umesh.
- In four games played at this venue this season, teams have opted to chase and have lost on all four occasions. In 55 T20s at the Dubai international stadium since 2018, the side batting first has won 29 matches.
- Nobody has scored more runs than Quinton de Kock's 353 in the powerplay since IPL 2019. He also has a fine record against the Royal Challengers, hitting 306 runs in six innings at an average of 51 and strike rate of 157.73.
- Since IPL 2018, the Royal Challengers have lost most wickets against legspin (42).
- This will be Kohli's 150th T20 match as captain. He has so far captained the Royal Challengers 112 times, and the Indian team 37 times.
Deivarayan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo