Royal Challengers Bangalor for Mumbai Indians in crucial tie

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Mumbai Indians have been scrappy but effective enough to win close games and earn 14 points from eleven games to stay pretty on the third spot.

The 2010 finalists will look to build on their three-match winning streak and take a step further towards the play-off berth.

They are up against a strong but under performing Royal Challengers Bangalore here at Wankhede stadium on Wednesday evening.

Although Mumbai Indians have won seven of their eleven games, but barring a couple of easy wins, they have been involved in close finishes which could have gone either way.

To their credit, they have kept their nerves at crucial times and Wednesday’s game could also be a nerve tester.

Mumbai top order finally fired with the bat collectively against Chennai Super King’s on Sunday, with Sachin Tendulkar (74, 44b) and Rohit Sharma (60, 46b) leading the way before new recruit Dwayne Smith’s big hitting sealed it (24, 9b), despite late collapse.

Sachin’s presence in the middle is crucial for Mumbai to eye a big score as he holds the innings together smartly and effortlessly increases the tempo when required.

Before the CSK game, Mumbai were more of a bowling team barring the individual brilliance from Rohit, Kieron Pollard and James Franklin with the bat.

Lasith Malinga has been their key weapon again this season, supported well by Munaf Patel and R.P. Singh. Harbhajan Singh has found form with the ball and Rob Peterson and Smith are utility allrounders like Franklin.

Challengers have been the exact opposite with a power-packed batting line-up but bowling has been their main problem.

They broke the two-match losing streak with a five-wicket narrow win over Deccan Chargers in Bengaluru on Sunday mainly due to Tilekaratne Dilshan’s brilliant start (71, 54b) and AB de Villiers clinical finish (47, 17b).

Besides these two prolific batsmen, Chris Gayle has been in rampaging form. Mayank Agarwal and Virat Kohli have also made some decent contributions.

With a bowler like Muttiah Muraitharan and Dirk Nannes sitting out in most games, Challengers look a bowling heavy side but in reality they have leaked runs in plenty.

Skipper Daniel Vettori has been off-colour and Zaheer Khan has also failed to make big impact, while Vinay Kumar has been inconsistent.

Vettori who made way for Murali in the last game is likely to return considering Sachin’s fragility with left arm spinners. A win here can take them into top four ahead of defending champions CSK.

The Pitch has thrown surprises every time and the team’s are likely to decide their strategy after thoroughly reading the pitch and both teams might feel comfortable while chasing.