IPL 2021 – MI vs RCB: The Indian Premier League 2021 is set to begin on Friday; the 9th of April, 2021 with the match between Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore. Both are extremely good teams and Mumbai Indians are the defending champions of the Indian Premier League who shall be hoping to retain the trophy even this time as well.
Royal Challengers Bangalore, on the other hand; have never been able to win the tournament despite being one of the best teams and thus they shall be raring to go from the very first match they shall be playing in. The best players of the Indian team – Virat Kohli (Royal Challengers Bangalore) and Rohit Sharma (Mumbai Indians); captain the two teams.
The two teams will face each other in Chennai for this match in a closed-door stadium and will meet again on the 20th of May 2021 at the Eden Gardens Stadium of Kolkata. The match is scheduled to start at 07:30 pm IST.
MI vs RCB – Key Stats
The two teams have always been involved in very exciting and entertaining matches; owing to which the fans of the Indian Premier League shall be looking forward to this match. The two teams have faced each other off; a total of 29 times since the beginning of the Indian Premier League. However, the Mumbai Indians have always held sway over the Royal Challengers Bangalore. Out of the 29 times they played against each other, the Mumbai Indians have won a total of 19 times while the Royal Challengers have won 10 times. There has not been a single match that has been tied or has not yielded any result. The two teams have played against each other two times in the last two years. In 2019, Mumbai Indians had won both the matches that they played against each other.
The first match of 2019 was won by the Mumbai Indians by six runs while the second match was won by five wickets. The first match of the 2020 season of the Indian Premier League between these two teams was won by the Royal Challengers Bangalore after a nail-biting super over and the second match was won by the Mumbai Indians by 5 wickets. Virat Kohli is the player with the highest number of runs (695) in the fixtures between the two teams while AB de Villiers of Royal Challengers has the highest score of 133* in the fixtures between the two teams. Harbhajan Singh of Mumbai Indians has the highest number of wickets at 22 in the fixtures between the two teams.
Recent addition to squads
Both the teams have boosted their capabilities by buying a host of new players this time. Among the significant additions to Mumbai Indians are Nathan Coulter-Nile, Adam Milne, Piyush Chawla and James Neesham. Coulter-Nile and Milne are known for their bowling skills while Chawla and Neesham are both capable all-rounders. On the other hand, the Royal Challengers Bangalore have bought Kylie Jamieson, Glenn Maxwell and Dan Christian. Maxwell has been one of the most significant additions to their squad along with the two players and their team shall become formidable now.
MI vs RCB – Squads
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (C), Aditya Tare, Anmolpreet Singh, Anukul Roy, Dhawal Kulkarni, Hardik Pandya, Ishan Kishan. Nathan Coulter-Nile, Adam Milne, Piyush Chawla, James Neesham, Jasprit Bumrah, Jayant Yadav, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya. Quinton de Kock, Rahul Chahar Suryakumar Yadav, Yudhvir Charak, Marco Jansen. Trent Boult, Chris Lynn, Saurabh Tiwary, Mohsin Khan, Arjun Tendulkar
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli (C), AB de Villiers, Devdutt Padikkal, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Washington Sundar. Mohammed Azharudeen, Yuzvendra Chahal, Joshua Phillipe, Pavan Deshpande, Shahbaz Ahmed, Adam Zampa, Suyash Prabhudesai. Kylie Jamieson, Kona Srikar Bharat, Glenn Maxwell, Dan Christian, Kane Richardson, Sachin Baby, Rajat Patidar, Daniel Sams, Harshal Patel
Pitch Report
There has not been any information available on the pitch yet. The last matches that have been played in Chennai were test matches, and thus the pitches were extremely tricky and turning in nature. This time, it is going to be a T20 match where people are going to expect hard-hitting. Therefore, in all probability, it is going to be a pitch that is going to favour batsmen.
Conclusion
Both the teams seem to be raring to go for the upcoming match. Maxwell, for example, was seen to be practising hard and has been looking forward to playing with Kohli and AB de Villiers. The Mumbai Indians have also been practising really hard. The level of competition between the two teams promises an exciting match for the tournament to begin with.
