The Mumbai Indians (MI) will play the Rajasthan Royals (RR) in Match 9 of IPL 2022, at the DY Patil Sports Academy in Navi Mumbai. The two sides have made contrasting starts to the new IPL season.
Mumbai lost their opening Delhi Capitals in their opening game by four wickets. They failed to defend 177/5 that night, and currently sit ninth in the table. By contrast, the Royals thumped the Sunrisers Hyderabad by 61 runs and are at second place.
Of course, it is too early in the season to worry about the overall standings. As the most successful franchise in IPL history, MI will not panic at this stage. They also have a history of losing their first match of an IPL season before later bouncing back.
Still, they will not want to fall even further off the pace, even at this early juncture, and will have half an eye on the net run rate. Having missed out on the playoffs last season because of a lower NRR, they will not want to leave things to chance this time if things get tight at the end of the regular campaign.
Mumbai lead 13-10 In head-to-head meetings as well as 3-2 in the last five encounters. The return of Suryakumar Yadav, who missed the match against Delhi with a knock, should boost their chances.
Likely XIs:
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (c), Ishan Kishan (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Kieron Pollard, Tim David, Daniel Sams, M. Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Tymal Mills, Basil Thampi
Rajasthan Royals: Sanju Samson (c & wk), Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Devdutt Padikkal, Shimron Hetmyer, Riyan Parag, Nathan Coulter-Nile, R. Ashwin, Trent Boult, Prasidh Krishna, Yuzvendra Chahal
Fantasy Tips:
• Back the usual Mumbai stars, Kishan, Suryakumar, and Rohit.
• Among fast bowlers, pick Bumrah of MI and Boult of RR.
• Samson usually does well at the start of the season. He batted brilliantly last match. Pick him as well as Buttler.
Where to watch
‘Match 9 between MI and RR will start at 15:30 on Saturday, April 2nd. You can watch the match on the Star Network and Hotstar.