MI vs RR 2019: The Sportsrush presents before you three intriguing player battles ahead of the 27th match of IPL 2019.
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When the Rajasthan Royals meet the Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede, they will look to fight tooth and nail to get 2 points. It has to be admitted that Rajasthan Royals, despite playing well in most of their matches, have always managed to end up on the wrong side of the result.
If only luck favoured them a little bit, the Royals may have been in a strong position. They have managed to lose crucial moments of the match and that is something they would want to change as soon as possible.
However, the home factor is bound to help the Mumbai Indians strategize better. The return of skipper Rohit Sharma will boost the team further.
They need to bat better in the middle overs and bowl better lines during the powerplay overs against batsmen like Jos Buttler and Steven Smith. A little brush up in these areas of concern might make the Mumbai Indians one of the toughest team to beat in the League.
Let us take a look at some of the player battles on display on Saturday:
Rohit Sharma vs Dhawal Kulkarni
Rohit Sharma would be coming back into the team after a 1 match break and would look to score some quick runs and play a good knock. However, his persistent problem with the swinging delivery might be his undoing especially against Dhawal Kulkarni who has been great with the new ball so far in this IPL and has consistently picked up wickets with the help of his swing. Will this be too much for Rohit to handle?
Kieron Pollard and Jofra Archer
Kieron Pollard played a gem of an innings in the last match scoring 83 off just 31 balls and helped MI get one more win. He has looked in decent touch and would now play the role of a senior pro and help finish matches for the team. This is where death-over specialist, Jofra Archer, would love to contribute to his team by bowling the perfect lengths and not letting the Pollard show take place with some perfect execution.
Jason Behrendorff vs Sanju Samson
Samson has had a good season before he got injured. He has scored a century and several important knocks. Now that he is fully fit, he would want to get a few more big scores. However, he does not fancy left arm pacers and has a weakness against this genre of pacers.
Behrendorff, with his excess space, would look to hurry Samson up and dismiss him as early as possible considering the impact Samson can have with the bat. The left-arm pacer has been deadly in the IPL on his debut season and Rohit would like to use him efficiently.
