Mumbai to brush aside struggling Royals

The weekend concludes with Match 45 of this year’s Dream11 Indian Premier League as the Mumbai Indians take on the Rajasthan Royals in what should be a very one sided match. Mumbai come in to this on the back of a demolition job against the Chennai Super Kings, whilst the Royals lost a grudge match against the Sunrisers on Thursday.

No captain, no problem

The leader of the pack for the Mumbai Indians, Rohit Sharma may have been crooked on the side-lines, but that wasn’t going to stop the reigning champs from piling on the misery of the Chennai Super Kings. After bowling first, they had CSK 3-4 with Trent Boult and Jasprit Bumrah blowing away the CSK top order. From that point the game was effectively won for Mumbai and despite some lower order resistance from Sam Curran (52) the 115 Mumbai had to chase was never ever going to be enough.

With no Sharma at the top of the order, youngster Ishan Kishan partnered Quinton de Kock and the pair showed the weary CSK bowlers no mercy, completing the job in 12.2 overs and with a fat 0 in the wickets column.

Last time out when these two sides met, it was a comfortable 57 run victory for the Mumbai Indians with Suryakumar Yadav the star of the show with 79*. Jasprit Bumrah was his excellent self, taking 4-20 from his four overs.

Now or never

Despite arguably having the biggest names in terms of overseas players, the Rajasthan Royals have struggled to find any real patches of form or consistency, and that is why they find themselves in 7^th place and staring down the barrel of no play-off position this year. It is safe to say that without a win in this one, it will be curtains for Steve Smith’s men. They had a great opportunity to take home two valuable points when they met the Sunrisers Hyderabad on Thursday, with both teams in mid table positions, but struggled to get going with the bat, meaning they only set 155 to win.

Jos Buttler and Steve Smith again were shuffled around the order with them batting at four and five respectively. It seems that since Ben Stokes has come in to the side half way through the tournament, the Royals have struggled to find the winning formula with the bat.

With the ball they have also struggled, barring the exceptional Jofra Archer, who has taken 15 wickets so far and bowled with some serious pace. They will need more from the likes of Kartik Tyagi and the spinners Shreyas Gopal and Rahul Tewatia.

Match Tip

Despite the fact they are in desperate need of the points, I cannot see a way that the Royals can turn their fortunes around to beat the team setting the pace at the top of the table.

I am backing the Mumbai Indians to beat the Rajasthan Royals at 1.65 with Unibet.

Bet Mumbai Indians to win on Unibet