After winning the first match of the season, Royal Challengers Bangalore will lock horns with consistent Mumbai Indians on Monday.
After losing six straight matches, the Royal Challengers opened their account in their previous match against Kings XI Punjab.
The Royal Challengers were at times sloppy in the field and with the ball, but in pursuit of 174, they came out all guns and got past the finish line. The smiles had certainly returned to the RCB dugout after the win against KXIP, and they will now look to build on the confidence from that win. The equation for RCB is pretty much the same it was prior to their previous match; for them to progress to the playoffs, they need to win at least six of their remaining seven matches.
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The Mumbai Indians meanwhile will be hurting from their defeat at home to the Rajasthan Royals. Despite the openers providing them a good start, MI slowed down a bit in the middle overs, and finished about 15-20 runs short of what they should have got.
Despite the win, the Royal Challengers will be aware that they haven’t found the perfect combination yet; they have a weak middle-order and their pace bowling attack needs to improve their game. Tim Southee or Kulwant Khejroliya (if fit and available for selection) are options worth exploring.
TEAMS
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Quinton de Kock, Suryakumar Yadav, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Ishan Kishan, Krunal Pandya, Alzarri Joseph, JaspritBumrah, Rahul Chahar, Jason Behrendorff.
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Parthiv Patel, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Marcus Stoinis, Moeen Ali, Akshdeep Nath, Pawan Negi, Yuzvendra Chahal, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Mohammed Siraj.