RCB has struggled against spinners in the middle overs in the IPL 2024. Although they have only lost four wickets at an average of 50.75, they are the second-lowest scoring team against spin in that phase. Their middle overs strike rate of 125 is only marginally better than KKR’s 122.68. The only two RCB hitters with strike rates above 110 are Patidar (171.42) and Virat Kohli (142.42), both of whom have faced at least ten balls of spin during the middle overs.
If the Indian hitters’ inability to score runs has historically been an issue, this year’s batting problems has gotten worse. Only Kohli’s bat, who currently holds the Orange Cap with 316 runs, has produced runs. Foreign runs have dried up, especially from the batters who are playing overseas.
With 109 runs in five games (35, 3, 8, 19, and 44), Faf du Plessis hasn’t exactly been a dominant player at the top of the order, and Glenn Maxwell, with just 32 runs (0, 3, 28, 0 and 3), has been a massive flop. Cameron Green, the much publicized pre-season trade acquisition, has only scored 68 runs in five games (18, 3, 33, 9, 5*).
With a convincing victory over the Delhi Capitals a few days ago, the Mumbai Indians have regained their footing and will look to build on that success. Their issue has been the captain’s form, as he hasn’t been able to control the bowling as he usually does. In the final overs (between 16 and 20 balls), he scored just 23 runs in 15 balls with three wickets, which is not a good score. In the other four games, he has scored 108 runs (11, 24, 34, and 39).
All of these indicate a vulnerability that is just waiting to be taken advantage of. Mumbai hasn’t, however, bowled a lot of spin at the Wankhede Stadium in IPL 2024. In their previous match, Piyush Chawla and Mohammad Nabi shared four overs of bowling while Chawla was the only spinner used for three overs against the Rajasthan Royals. According to their training regimen, RCB appears to be prepared for a little spin test on game day.
Mumbai has bowled the least amount of spin so far in IPL 2024 – 18 overs, of which Chawla has bowled 10. They have only taken two wickets with spin all year, and their economy rate of 11.22 is the lowest of all the sides.
Venue : Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai
MI Probable XI : Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya (c), Tim David, Mohammad Nabi, Romario Shepherd, Piyush Chawla, Gerald Coetzee, Jasprit Bumrah.
RCB Probable XI : Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis (c), Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell, Cameron Green, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Saurav Chauhan, Reece Topley, Mayank Dagar, Mohammed Siraj, Yash Dayal.
