MI vs RCB Match Prediction: Who will win the battle between Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore, IPL 2016, Match 14

Two high profile teams, one huge match as Royal Challengers Bangalore faces Mumbai Indians in the IPL 2016 series at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Mumbai Indians have been in dismal form winning just one out of the four games they have played till now.

Another loss here and they would be in dire straits! RCB on the other hand, have played just two games and have a 50% win/loss record till now. They are coming from a loss at the hands of Delhi Daredevils in the previous game.

In the previous encounters, Mumbai Indians have outdone the Royal Challengers Bangalore on 11 occasions and have gone down to the RCB 9 times. It’s a pretty close head to head record and their upcoming match should also be a pretty close one.

The Mumbai track should be full of runs and dew will come into play later in the innings. The team winning the toss will look to field first. The toss will be crucial and the team selection has to be smart.

If Mumbai Indians bats first

Predicted score: 170 and above

We might see some changes in the batting line up for MI. Unmukt Chand might come in place of Parthiv Patel and Jos Buttler might be asked to don the gloves. Chand/Parthiv will open with Martin Guptill. Guptill, who perished in the first over against the Sunrisers, would love to make amends and get his IPL campaign up and running against RCB. A lot though would depend on the experience of their skipper Rohit Sharma and Ambati Rayudu in the middle.

We might even see Corey Anderson getting a game for Mumbai finally. He should team up with the Pandya brothers and try to get the Mumbai score galloping towards somewhere around 170.

The bowling has been inconsistent but Tim Southee’s form with the ball should provide some respite for Mumbai. If Southee along with Jasprit Bumrah, can knock off at least two of the big three RCB batters early, 50% of the job will be done. We might also see the Rajasthan speedster Nathu Singh in action if Mumbai opt for an Indian pacer in place of McCleneghan.

Harbhajan Singh’s form should be a bit of a worry for Mumbai as they rely heavily on him to contain the batsmen and give them vital breakthroughs. It’s also crucial that the allrounders Hardik, Krunal and Corey Anderson don’t leak runs in the middle. Mumbai bowlers must take inspiration from the Delhi bowlers and try to choke the RCB lower order with some intelligent death bowling.

If RCB bat first

Predicted score: 180 and above

The top heavy batting unit of RCB would want to score 75% of the team total as they would know they can’t rely much on the others especially after what happened a few nights back in Bangalore. Ideally, they would like one of their top three to bat through the innings and the others can play around them.

Kohli, De Villiers and Watson will share the bulk of the scoring between them. The others like the innovative Sarfaraz Khan and the big-hitting Stuart Binny (if he gets a game) could provide the final push to the innings.

Bowling has generally been RCB’s problem over the seasons and this season is no different. Adam Milne/ Kane Richardson might replace David Wiese. Also we might see some Indian bowlers like Vikramjeet Mallik coming in for this game. Mumbai batting has underwhelmed throughout this tournament and that should be good news for a struggling RCB bowling attack.