FANTASY
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Mumbai Indians (MI) take on Rajasthan Royals (RR) in Match 24 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi. MI and RR are level on points, having won two of their five games so far. While MI are coming off the back of a massive nine-wicket loss at the hands of Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), RR, on the other hand, got back to winning ways, beating Kolkata Knight Riders by six wickets in their previous game.
When it comes to the overall head-to-head, there’s nothing to separate RR and MI as both have won 11 matches apiece. However, if we look at the last five matches, RR have steamrolled MI, securing victories in four of them.
IPL HEAD-TO-HEAD
Overall - Matches – 22 | Mumbai – 11 Wins | Rajasthan – 11 Wins
Last five games – Mumbai – 1 Win| Rajasthan – 4 Wins
Suggested Teams
While you could go for the above team, you also have the option of choosing your own team from cricket.com’s Fantasy Research Centre. Based on algorithms, we have come up with one team.
Ground Details and Team Combination
This will just be the second match to be played at this venue this season. The Arun Jaitley Stadium has not witnessed many T20 matches since 2019. There wasn't much to choose when it came to the percentage of wickets between the pacers and the spinners, but the latter were much more efficient in keeping the runs down and also in picking up wickets at regular intervals.
The spinners picked up a wicket every 20.6 deliveries, 24 runs apart and for the pacers, the corresponding numbers are 21.6 and 29.8 respectively. The spinners were absolutely dominant in the middle phase (Overs 7-17) in T20s in 2019, having picked up close to 75 percent of the wickets.
Keeping a couple of frontline spinners might be an excellent idea, but at the same time, the pacers too cannot be discounted as they have picked up huge chunks of wickets in Delhi in the powerplay and also at the death.
There could be some interesting match-ups to look forward to.
Rohit Sharma has found his form of late, he could come up against Chris Morris in the early stages of the innings, which could work quite well for him. The MI captain has dispatched Morris for 76 runs at a strike-rate of over 143 and has been dismissed just once against the South Africa fast bowler in nine T20 innings. IPL’s most expensive player, Morris, will look to bounce back and knock over the MI skipper early in this game to give his side a chance.
Jos Buttler is yet to find form in IPL 2021, getting to double figures just twice in five innings. It could turn worse for Buttler with Jasprit Bumrah bowling at him. The Indian quick has dismissed Buttler thrice in six T20 innings. Moreover, the RR ‘keeper has scored just 32 runs against Bumrah at an average of 10.7. RR would desperately hope Buttler can turn things around in this game.
Captain Selection
Rohit Sharma has scored more than 30 in his last four IPL innings, which includes a couple of 40s and a fifty. He scored a brilliant 63 in the previous match against Punjab Kings and will look to continue his good touch in this match as well. Rohit has been excellent against the spinners this season, having scored at a strike-rate of 144.19 and has been dismissed just once in five innings so far. Given that the track in Delhi could be a tricky one when it comes to facing spinners, Rohit could play a huge part in negotiating them and scoring big.
Our Criclytics player projector predicts Rohit could score 37-55 runs in this match.
X-Factors
No spinner has more wickets in IPL 2021 than Rahul Chahar. The MI leg-spinner has picked up nine wickets so far at 15.22 and an economy rate of well under seven. In T20s since 2019, leg-spinners have picked up 32 wickets at 19, 14.8 deliveries apart, which makes leg-spinners a great wicket-taking option.
Our Criclytics player projector predicts Chahar could pick up 1-2 wickets in this match.
In the five matches in IPL 2021 so far, Chris Morris has performed admirably with the ball and also played a vital innings against Delhi to guide his team home. He has picked up nine wickets at 18 in the tournament so far and could very well be a handy weapon with the down the order like he has shown on many occasions. With RR looking to build on their win against KKR, where Morris was adjudged the player of the match for his four wickets, the South Africa all-rounder will have to play a pivotal role for them.
Our Criclytics player projector predicts Morris could score 8-12 runs and pick up 1-2 wickets in this match.
With only four overseas players left in the RR squad – David Miller is one of them – he has shown glimpses of his bets in a couple of knocks in the tournament so far. He scored an unbeaten 24-ball 23 in the previous game, which was the need of the hour, but against Delhi a couple of weeks ago, he bludgeoned seven fours and a couple of sixes to score 62 off just 43 to help RR to nail-biting victory. He will look to bring all his experience into play here as RR look to push for a top-four spot.
Our Criclytics player projector predicts Miller could score 11-17 runs in this match.