By IANS,
Mumbai : An exciting battle is on the cards when Mumbai Indians, riding high after back-to-back victories, take on the Rajasthan Royals, the current leaders in the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the D.Y. Patil Stadium here Wednesday.
After four straight losses, Mumbai Indians have opened their IPL account beating two strong teams — Kolkata Knight Riders and Delhi Daredevils. Mumbai Indians, though, will have to raise their game, if they hope to put it across Rajasthan Royals, who have notched up five consecutive wins.
Royals have improved with every outing after their first loss against Delhi Daredevils. A bunch of youth and experience, Royals are on a roll after five wins.
For Mumbai Indians, who will be missing the services of Sachin Tendulkar for the seventh consecutive match, it will be important for Sanath Jayasuirya to give them an explosive start.
Stand-in skipper Shaun Pollock has played crucial knocks in the batting department but the rest of the order has lacked in consistency.
If at all Jayasuriya manages to give a blazing start, it will set up an exciting contest between the left-hander and the wizard of spin Shane Warne, the Royals’ skipper who has bowled intelligently in the tournament and picked up crucial wickets in the middle overs.
The Mumbai top order will also have to negotiate the in-form Pakistani pacer Sohail Tanvir, who took six wickets to plot the downfall of Super Kings in the last match.
Munaf Patel and Siddharth Trivedi have also done an excellent job with the ball for Royals.
Mumbai Indians, though, will have the support of the 50,000-strong crowd that is expected to fill the stadium. Such was the support from the crowd here in their match against Delhi Daredevils that it prompted Shaun Pollock to say it was like playing with an extra player.