Rajasthan Royals vs. Mumbai Indians, Kingsmead, Durban - 14th May, 2009 SET MAX (8:00 PM IST) - 14:30 GMT
A humdinger of an event awaits - between some of cricket's most respected names. With Graeme Smith leading the charge for Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the absence of Shane Warne, it will be an interesting battle of the brains against the Sachin Tendulkar led Mumbai Indians (MI).
MI have risen from the bottom of the pile to their current position in the points table while RR have slid down the table due to losses in their previous two games. Both teams are vying for a place in the semis adding that extra bit of interest in the contest. Interestingly, this is the first contest between the two teams in IPL 2009 as their first one was washed out due to rains at the same venue. Judging by their performances in the previous year, it is hard to determine the winner in this particular contest. However both teams have certain positives and negatives which can be exploited by the two experienced captains.
Things have not been going great for RR in the tournament so far. The team has been unable to maintain consistency in the tournament - while they have beaten some of the strongest teams in the tournament they have succumbed under pressure whilst chasing totals. MI on the other hand have had their own share of problems with the opening partnerships not clicking and the middle order giving way under pressure cooker situations.
Both teams though have some excellent players in their ranks and in good form too. While Asnodkar seems to have come to the party for RR, it is JP Duminy and Dwayne Bravo holding together the MI batting attack. The contest though is not between the batsmen but between the bowlers. Both teams have won more games because of their bowling attack. Most recently, MI bowlers took apart the Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) batting with some skilful bowling efforts by Harbhajan Singh and Lasith Malinga and won the game for MI, comfortably. RR bowlers too have produced some stellar spells with the efforts of key bowlers such as Munaf Patel and Ravindra Jadeja and Yusuf Pathan.
The match will be a hotly contested one with the bowlers deciding the outcome of the clash. More interesting would be the way the batsmen tackle the tricky conditions at Kingsmead. RR's slower bowlers would have prepared a slew of strategies to tackle the MI batting while the MI bowlers would be riding on their winning momentum to take them through in this match as well.
Watch out: Graeme Smith's captaincy against Sachin Tendulkar's leadership will be worth the watch. One, a legendary Indian batsman and another who led the underdogs to victory against the mighty Australians will try their level best to go one up against each other.
Smith and Asnodkar like the ball coming on to the bat and how they tackle MI's faster bowlers - Dwayne Bravo and Dhawal Kulkarni - may provide RR with an upper hand over MI.
MI's slower bowling options are a plenty and so are RR's. Which side takes the cake will depend on which side bowls better. An interesting contest in the making; right from who opens the bowling to who bowls the crucial middle overs.
RR Squad: Graeme Smith, Robert Quiney, Abhishek Raut, Morne Morkel, Paul Valthaty, Kamran Khan, Niraj Patel, Mahesh Rawat, Shane Harwood, Siddharth Trivedi, Yusuf Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Munaf patel, Tyron Henderson.
Halla Bol!!!
Back