It is going to be one hundredth fiftieth match for both Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Rohit Shamra and what an occasion it is going to be to these two fantastic players. And they are going to celebrate this wonderful ocassion on the little master Sachin Tendulkar’s birthday today. Will Mumbai Indian’s with more victory give Sachin a birthday gift or will Risning Pune Supergaints who won a thriller the other day stun Mumbai infront of their home crowd?
Whatever be the result of today’s match, for sure it is going to be a thriller today at Wankhede Stadium tonight. In just two hours time the battle is going to begin. Mumbai lost to RPS in the very first match of VIVO IPL 10 and they must be hoping for a revenge here. It all depends on how the wicket is going to play today. Today days ago when they took on Delhi Daredevils, the wicket helped the bowlers quite a bit, very unusual here as the conditions most of the time favour batters.
RPS’s top order is struggling at the moment. Smith who looked in terrific touch in the initial stages is not as consistent as the team wants him to be, while Ajinkya Rahane is yet to strike his form. He is in fact going to be the key man for them today as Mumbai is his home town and no one one can understand the nature of the wicket better than him. Dhoni will be batting at top of the order today and I am sure he would like to celebrate his 150th match with good allround show.
For Mumbai Rohit is still not yet his best and he is really finding it hard to negotiate the spinners. In this ongoing IPL spinners have got him out on quite a few ocassions and we have to wait and see how he is going to handle Imran Tahir today.
MeClenegan bowled a superb spell the other day and Mumbai might stick to the same XI today. If any change they are thinking of Mitchell Johnson may be replaced by Malinga.
In yesterday’s matches, Royal Challengers suffered the worst ever defeat in the IPL history being skittled out for 49 – the lowest total. Previously it was Rajasthan Royals who were bundled out 58 by RCB in 2009 at Capetown.
In the other match Kings XI Punjab scored a fine win over Gujrat Loins to keep their hopes alive for the playoffs.
Mahavaadi Sudeer– DD Commentator
