Mumbai Indians vs RCB – IPL Semi Final

As dhoni says its more of a lottery. Man to Man i would rate RCBs batting w.r.t twenty20 above Mumbai Indians. Mumabi Indians bowling to me is better than RCB’s. RCB are heavily reliant on Dale Steyn and Anil Kumble to provide them the break throughs as well as stifle the opposition for runs.

If either of them get tonked, go above 7 runs per over then a score of 180+ is on the cards. Compare this with mumbai indians bowling zaheer, lasitha, dilhara, ryan mclaren/Keiron Pollard and bhaji. If i were sachin i would play all 5 bowlers. I would drop keiron as well as bravo and play duminy. Strengthen my batting with Indian domestic talent. So mumbai Indians batting line up would be,

Sachin, Shikar Dhawan, Rayadu, Saurabh Tiwary, JP duminy, Abhishek Nayar, Ryan Mclaren/Keiron pollard, Bhaji, zaheer khan, dilhara, lasitha.

Imagine 16 overs of high quality pace bowling with two  pace bowlers having slower ones which cannot be picked by most batsmen. At Max i would expect a 16*7 runs average per over. With Bhaji to bowl remaining 4 overs it would be tough for RCB to score more than 150. For them an above 150 total would necessitate atleast one or two of  robin, kp, virat kohli and ross taylor to fire.

My gut feel is that if rcb bat first they would set a challenging total of around 150 – 160. Wait for Mumbai indians to panic. If Mumbai indians bat first rcb would pray that sachin chokes and restrict them to 150-160. If one of the teams post a 170 + total then i would say they would be the winners. From Mumbai indians perspective they would definitely want Kallis to play 60 balls,;). Leaving 15 balls each for the remaining 4 big hitters.

Statistically I am more inclined towards Mumbai Indians, but big matches, RCB definitely has players with big match temperament compared to Sachins inexperienced indian domestic talent.

If mumbai indians domestic talent doesnt succumb to pressure they would be the clear winners.

jgd