Toss - MI opt to bowl

Toss - MI opt to bowl

No surprises there! Rohit Sharma opts to chase after winning the toss. Mumbai Indians have a minor blow as Lasith Malinga is not fit to take the field today. He is replaced by Tim Southee. And RCB have made three changes to their lineup. Apart from Kohli, Chris Gayle is back in the XI and they have dropped Shane Watson. Samuel Badree gets his first game of the season and he comes in place of Billy Stanlake. Iqbal Abdulla makes way for Sreenath Aravind.

Teams:

Royal Challengers Bangalore (Playing XI): Virat Kohli(c), Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers, Kedar Jadhav(w), Mandeep Singh, Stuart Binny, Pawan Negi, Tymal Mills, Sreenath Aravind, Samuel Badree, Yuzvendra Chahal

Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Parthiv Patel(w), Jos Buttler, Rohit Sharma(c), Nitish Rana, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Hardik Pandya, Harbhajan Singh, Tim Southee, Mitchell McClenaghan, Jasprit Bumrah

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Amit Mishra, Quinton de Kock earn DD first win of the season

Mishra spins a web

Just two deliveries are required to describe the kind of dominance the Delhi Daredevils managed to exert on the Kings XI Punjab. The first was a classical leg-break — slow and loopy — tossed above Shaun Marsh’s eye-line. It tempted him to come down the track, but Marsh gets beaten in flight.
The ball pitches and deviates, and Quinton de Kock did a pretty competent job behind the stumps. Marsh was dismissed for 13 immediately after Powerplay.

The second was a googly, one which fizzed off the turf to trap David Miller plumb in front. In the end, these two vastly contrasting deliveries from Amit Mishra - fetching him wickets in the first delivery of the opening two overs - was enough to derail what looked like a formidable batting line-up of Kings XI Punjab.

Mishra proved to his captain Zaheer Khan’s trump card. More than anything it was the sense of occasion — the 33-year-old was featuring in his 100th IPL game. He was also aided by the manner in which his captain used him as a wicket-taking option up front. Brought into the attack in the 7th over, Punjab were sitting pretty at 1/37. Instead of going on the defensive, Zaheer went for the kill, keeping a slip straightaway. Buoyed by his captain’s confidence, Mishra hit his straps immediately. He bowled tidy lines, rarely erred in length and cleverly mixed his pace. Punjab, who were banking heavily on their two foreign superstars — Miller and Glenn Maxwell — were clueless to the guiles of Mishra. By the time, Maxwell was dismissed, Punjab’s were meandering into oblivion. Mishra was supported by offie Jayant Yadav, who scalped Axar Patel. Punjab would eventually end their essay at 111/9, but surprisingly, Mishra, the star of the evening, would not finish his quota of four overs. His three-over burst yielded him four wickets, enough to walk away with the Player-of-the-Match award. Mishra’s record in IPL is enviable. In 100 games, he has picked 116 wickets, putting him second to only Lasith Malinga (143) in the list of the highest wicket-takers in this format. For a bowler of such amazing consistency, it’s baffling that he has featured in only seven T20 internationals. What’s even more surprising is that six of those games were played at the World T20 in Bangladesh two years ago, where he finished with a haul of 10 wickets.

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Pacesetters Gujarat Lions show up for Mumbai sprint

Two years ago, they lost their first five matches and last year they lost their three first games. This year, Mumbai Indians have managed to win their second game away after a listless first match at home. They had chosen to bat in their first game against Rising Pune Supergiants — a strange decision considering the pitch was perhaps best tuned to chase. They made amends in the second game in Kolkata, and though they conceded 187, they managed to canter in the chase courtesy Rohit Sharma and Jos Buttler.

Gujarat Lions have made a sparkling start, winning both their games, with Aaron Finch bagging the man of the match awards on both occasions. At their home base in Rajkot, Suresh Raina, their captain, seemed more than happy to trust the spinners with three of them playing. Their real strength, though, is in that beefy top order. Apart from Finch, they have Brendon McCullum, Raina and Dwayne Bravo — it’s a kind of line-up that would fancy hunting down or setting up targets with confidence.

With his clever slower deliveries that dip tantalisingly late Bravo the bowler continues to win rave reviews, as he should. But Bravo the batsman has been slipping under the radar. The World T20 was almost a non-show, even turning in a match threatening slow knock in the final. In the second game, here, against Ishant Sharma, he showed what he is capable of with three consecutive fours. For the first, he jumped almost to the wide line outside leg stump and when Ishant followed him up with a length delivery, Bravo stood still to unfurl a peachy inside-out over covers. He shimmed again next ball — though not as much as the first — and again brought in his high left-elbow into play to send the ball over extra cover again. For the third he stood at his stance to wallop a full delivery over the offside. On his day, he can not only be attacking but also be stylish.

Mitch McClenaghan marked the return of pinch hitters in T20 with a breezy 8-ball 20 in the chase against Kolkata. The chase was under control but he ensured it didn’t slack off. He teed off three sixes to put any doubt about the chase to rest. Rohit Sharma, who had a poor world T20 tournament, came back to form in IPL with a 54-ball 84 against Kolkata Knight Riders.

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