IPL 2018, RCB vs MI: Once among the top contenders, now fight the battle of survival

Two of the most popular sides in the Indian Premier League who were also being considered among the top contenders for the title this season, RCB and Mumbai Indians are going to clash in the 31st match of the IPL 11.

Both the teams have identical records in the league so far. Having played 7 matches each, both the teams have lost five and won five matches.

Interestingly, three of the highest five totals have been set by Royal Challengers Banglore. Even in their match against CSK, Royal Challengers Banglore put a challenging score of 205 but failed to defend. The real concern for RCB has been their bowling department. Be it, Umesh Yadav or Yuzvendra Chahal, none of them has come up with the performance they are expected of.

More recently, the Kolkata Knight Riders chased down 175 without their batsmen being made to work hard.

The numbers do the talking for RCB, their overall scoring rate this season is a very competitive 9.13, but their overall economy rate is 9.63! They concede a mountain of runs in case they bowl first and it gets really difficult for RCB batsmen to chase and same is the case when they happen to bat first. No matter how many runs their batsmen score, their bowlers have continuously failed in defending the biggest of the targets.

Speaking of the defending champions, Mumbai Indians. They have won two of the five matches they have played so far. Moreover, Mumbai have lost most of their by an inch. They were as close to the win as one could be but things just did not go the Mumbai way. Mumbai have been in the lower half of the points table for most of the time even though they happen t be one of the strongest sides in the IPL this season. They need to win all of their future matches in order to keep their hopes alive to reach the playoffs.

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Virat Kohli (C), Moeen Ali Corey Anderson Murugan Ashwin Yuzvendra Chahal Aniket Choudhary Colin de Grandhomme Quinton de Kock (W) Pavan Deshpande AB de Villiers Aniruddha Joshi Sarfaraz Khan Kulwant Khejroliya Brendon McCullum Mandeep Singh Mohammed Siraj Pawan Negi Parthiv Patel Navdeep Saini Tim Southee Manan Vohra Washington Sundar Chris Woakes Umesh Yadav

Mumbai Indians

Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah Rahul Chahar Ben Cutting Akila Dananjaya JP Duminy Ishan Kishan Siddhesh Lad Evin Lewis Sharad Lumba Mayank Markande Mitchell McClenaghan Adam Milne Mohsin Khan Mustafizur Rahman MD Nidheesh Hardik Pandya Krunal Pandya Kieron Pollard Anukul Roy Pradeep Sangwan Tajinder Singh Aditya Tare (W) Saurabh Tiwary Suryakumar Yadav

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