The 48th game in the ongoing thirteenth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2020) will witness table topper Mumbai Indians (MI) locking horns with second place Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi, UAE later on Wednesday evening.
The IPL 2020 encounter between Mumbai Indians (MI) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) is set to commence at 7:30 pm (IST) with the toss scheduled to be held at 7:00 pm (IST).
It indeed was a nerve wrecking affair when MI and RCB locked horns earlier in the season with Kohli's 'Red and Black Brigade' edging the 'Blue Army' in a thrilling Super Over contest.
MI And RCB Just Need A Win To Qualify For The Play-Offs In Season 13
Comfortably placed at the top of the points table with 14 points a piece in their kitty courtesy seven wins each in the season, a win will be enough for either of the teams to clinch a sure-shot berth in the all important play-offs.
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There are injury concerns on their sides ahead of the play-off clinching game at Abu Dhabi. While Mumbai Indians could once again be without the services of their seasoned skipper Rohit Sharma, RCB could miss out on tearaway speedster Navdeep Saini featuring in the Playing XI.
Both MI and RCB Have Plenty Of Firepower In Batting Armoury
It would well come down to which out the two power packed batting lineup can outscore the other one. Both the teams have a plethora of pugnacious strokemaker who can change the course of the game on their own with some scintillating strokeplay.
While Mumbai Indians have Quinton De Kock, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan and Pandya brothers in their ranks, RCB boasts of Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, AB De Villiers and Aaron Finch in their batting armoury.
With the frontline batsmen on either sides having runs under their belt, they would look to replicate their performances and come good at the business end of the tournament.
With explosive power hitters in Kieron Pollard and Pandya Brothers (MI) and AB De Villiers and Chris Morris (RCB), both teams have the ability to swing the game their way with some brutal carnage at the fag end of the innings.
Mumbai Indians Look More Potent In Seam Attack, RCB Holds The Edge In Spin Arsenal
Mumbai Indians do hold the slightest of edge over RCB when it comes to seam bowling. The seam attack has been in rich wicket taking form with Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult and James Pattinson consistently among the wickets. Meanwhile, RCB too offer a good variety in their pace arsenal with Chris Morris, Isuru Udana and Mohammad Siraj.
RCB do have more meat in the spin arsenal with their lethal spin twins in ace leg spinner Yuzvendra Chahal and mystery spinner Washington Sundar. Meanwhile MI tweakers in Rahul Chahar and Krunal Pandya have had their moments under the sun in the season so far.
In a nutshell, it is hard to pick up a winner between two teams who have been pretty consistent and remained steady at the top half of the draw. Whatever the result might pan out to be, one of the table toppers will surely secure a berth in the knockouts.
Here are the full squads for Mumbai Indians vs Royal Challengers Bangalore
Mumbai Indians: Kieron Pollard, Rohit Sharma, Aditya Tare, Mitchell McClenaghan, Mohsin Khan, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Prince Balwant Rai, Quinton De Kock, Rahul Chahar, Saurabh Tiwary, Sherfane Rutherford, Suryakumar Yadav, Trent Boult, Anmolpreet Singh, Anukul Roy, Chris Lynn, Dhawal Kulkarni, Digvijay Deshmukh, Hardik Pandya, Ishan Kishan, James Pattison, Jasprit Bumrah, Jayant Yadav, Krunal Pandya
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Navdeep Saini, Dale Steyn, Yuzvendra Chahal, Adam Zampa, Isuru Udana, Moeen Ali, Josh Philippe, Pawan Negi, Pavan Deshpande, Mohammad Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Aaron Finch, Devdutt Padikkal, Parthiv Patel, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Gurkeerat Singh, Shivam Dube, Chris Morris, Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed
IPL 2020: Play-Off Berth Up For The Grabs As Table Toppers MI Face Off Against Second-Placed RCB
ABP News Bureau
Updated at:
28 Oct 2020 02:03 PM (IST)
The IPL 2020 encounter between Mumbai Indians (MI) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) is set to commence at 7:30 pm (IST) with the toss scheduled to be held at 7:00 pm (IST).
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