Rajasthan will take on Mumbai to stay alive in Indian T20 League 2020 on Sunday night.
Match Timings: Oct 25, 7:30 PM
Team Preview
Rajasthan makes travel to Abu Dhabi in a must-win encounter against the high-flying defending champions. After delivering a comprehensive victory over Chennai, Smith-led side suffered an 8-wickets loss to Hyderabad. With 3 more games to go, Rajasthan are in a do-die situation. To remain in the playoffs race, the pink outfit needs to win all three games. Smith’s team combination is not working. Sending Buttler in middle-order is putting pressure on them as Stokes is not effective as an opener. The bowling unit is also giving a tough time to Smith as Rajasthan lost to Hyderabad, despite two early blows by Archer. Samson finally got some rhythm with 26-balls 36 and Smith would aim to see a fine knock from him. The task is difficult for Rajasthan but somehow, they overcome this, they can still fight for the 4th spot.
Meanwhile, the domination from Mumbai is extra-ordinary. The pursuit of the record 5th title is going strong for Mumbai after defeating Chennai by 10 wickets in the previous game. The recent success from Bangalore and Delhi put pressure on Mumbai to continue their winning run to finish in top two. Ishan Kishan opened for the first time and scored 37-balls 68 on Friday night. This side has different match-winners and they can also see their skipper back after recovering from the injury. The pace-attack is Mumbai’s key asset with Boult and Bumrah who are leading the bowling chart this tournament. Rahul Chahar has also improved in middle-overs and picked breakthrough when the team needed the most. Mumbai would avoid any upset and seal the playoff spot tonight.
Pitch Report
Sheikh Zayed Stadium is a fine batting track and the surface has a lot of runs to batsmen. Spinners are in command due to the sluggish behaviour of the pitch. 170-180 is a par score on the surface and the chasing would be a decent idea.
Possible XI
Rajasthan
Ben Stokes, Robin Uthappa, Sanju Samson (wk), Steven Smith (c), Jos Buttler, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia, Jofra Archer, Shreyas Gopal, Ankit Rajpoot, Kartik Tyagi
Mumbai
Quinton de Kock (wk), Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Nathan Coulter-Nile/Pattinson, Rahul Chahar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah
Key Players
Rajasthan
Jos Buttler
This season – M: 11, Runs: 271, Avg: 30.11
Jofra Archer
This season – M: 11, Wickets: 15, Avg: 19.26
Mumbai
De Cock
This season – M: 10, Runs: 368, Avg: 46
Trent Boult
This season – M: 10, Wickets: 16, Avg: 19.81
