IPL 2021, Match 01, April 9th MI vs RCB, MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai. Preview MI vs RCB in IPL 2021, head to head player stats, records of both Mumbai Indians and RCB at this venue plus best Dream11 predictions for MI vs RCB.
MI v RCB head to head player stats
RCB bowlers v MI batsmen
In any T20 game, delivering key match ups of batsmen vs bowlers is the role of any on field captain and the plethora of coaching staff that back them up. Here we consider the head to head stats of Mumbai Indians and RCB to show where those match-ups will be during the game itself
Spin, as we’ll examine in greater detail below, will be a key feture of the games played at the MA Chidambaram Stadium and RCB’s main threat with ball, Yuzvendra Chahal has an excellent head to head record against several of the Mumbai Indians batsmen
As we can see, Chahal certainly has the better of Quinton de Kock in previous IPL encounters and in general, de Kock’s record against wrist spinners is fairly poor particularly for a left-hander.
We saw in the recent T20 series between India and England that Eoin Morgan usually opened the bowling with Adil Rashid against India’s right-handers, one of whom was Rohit Sharma whose strike rate vs Chahal in the IPL is just 93. Might RCB consider doing the same against Mumbai especially given that de Kock has a weakness against him? RCB could also opt to play Adam Zampa if they wish to bolster their spin options and not leave themselves short in the middle overs.
Indeed, MI’s batting line-up has a much better head to head record vs the right-arm seamers that RCB are likely to play with. Mohammed Siraj and Navdeep Saini have just a single IPL wicket between them vs MI’s first choice top 4. Even if they lack the penetration against the MI batsmen that the spinners may have, it will be crucial that RCB’s seamers at the very least maintain pressure and ensure that Mumbai are forced to take risks against the likes of Chahal.
Of course another slow bowling option at the top of the order for RCB is Washington Sundar and again his record vs Mumbai’s openers is impressive. As well as the stats vs Rohit below, de Kock has struggled to get him away in the past, with an IPL career strike rate of just 64 vs the off-spinner!
MI bowlers vs RCB batsmen
In general, RCB’s top order have an excellent record vs Mumbai’s main strike bowler in Jasprit Bumrah. Virat Kohli averages 40 against his international colleague while AB de Villiers averages 53! The man Bumrah certainly holds the wood over though is Glenn Maxwell whom he’s dismissed 4 times in his IPL career and as such I’d expect that MI will hold Bumrah back for at least 2 overs towards the death so that they can bring this match-up in to play if necessary.
In fact, Maxwell’s head to head record in the IPL against this current MI bowling line-up is pretty poor and you’d imagine that after commanding another hefty fee in this year’s auction the pressure will be on the Australian to deliver early.
Some of the most intriguing head to head battles in this match will involve AB de Villiers. His IPL stats against some of Mumbai’s seamers are very impressive while equally against their spinners he has struggled. My guess would be when he comes to the crease, he’s not going to face a huge amount of pace at least early in his innings.
While de Villiers hasn’t faced a great deal of bowling from Boult his record vs left-arm seamers in general is very impressive and you’d imagine that he’ll be targeting the Kiwi if he gets a chance.
Similarly, expect Hardik Pandya to fain another back injury when AB walks out to bat. The South African has nearly a century of runs vs Mumbai’s number 1 all-rounder.
Of course, Hardik can always rely on his brother for a helping hand. Krunal Pandya’s record vs AB de Villiers is very good and as we’ll see below he has been particularly effective at this venue.
Furthermore, Mumbai Indians may opt to play Piyush Chawla who equally has a very good record vs AB de Villiers and Glenn Maxwell. Chawla is a curious case having been the most expensive Indian purchase in the auction for IPL 2020. CSK undoubtedly believed that they would be able to utlise him to good effect at this very ground before COVID-19 intervened and by happy coincidence, Chawla will get the chance to play in Chennai albeit for Mumbai as a result of the way the fixtures have fallen in IPL 2021.
Mumbai Indians stats at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai
Really, with the exception of Trent Boult who has taken just a single wicket in his previous 2 visits here at a cost of 71 runs, the rest of the Mumbai Indians bowling attack enjoys playing at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
2 players stand out, as much for their economy rate as for their wicket taking here and that is the spin duo of Krunal Pandya and Rahul Chahar. If RCB fail to get off to a quick start, then it seems likely that these 2 will strangle them in the middle overs at this ground.
Batting wise, the MA Chidambaram’s slow nature has never been conducive to big or fast scoring matches in the IPL. Suryakumar Yadav averages 87 batting here but has a strike rate of just 109 suggesting it will be a venue that favours accumulation through the middle overs. The advantage for Mumbai Indians will be their big hitters in the middle order. If the top order can build a platform then the likes of Pollard and Pandya will be able to push them on during the back end of the innings. In that regards, Hardik has scored at a strike rate of 154 at this ground and never been dismissed here in the IPL.
The big concern again for MI would be the record of Quinton de Kock at the MA Chidambaram Stadium as shown below.
RCB stats at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai
As for RCB, the fact that they have a largely inexperienced team means that the data we have particularly for their bowlers at the MA Chidambaram Stadium is fairly limited and their records are of no particular note. Chahal has a couple of wickets here on his last 2 visits and much like we saw with MI’s spinners, he is particularly difficult to score off on this pitch going for just 5.3 runs an over.
Batting wise, Kohli and de Villiers have the best records of any established players at this venue. Again you feel that it’ll be down to the top order to get RCB off to a solid start if they are to make a competitive total in this game. While Devdutt Padikkal may not have ever played an IPL match at the MA Chidambaram Stadium he has shown in his early career that he is very good player of slow bowling, averaging as he does 54.33 vs spin. I we assume that this match will ultimately be a trial by spin then he would appear to have the game to combat it.
Dream11 predictions MI v RCB
Based on the above, our top 5 picks for your Dream11 teams for the opening fixture of IPL 2021 are as follows.
Krunal Pandya
Yuzvendra Chahal
Kieron Pollard
Virat Kohli
Rahul Chahar
If you are predicting multiple Dream11 teams then these 5 players should make up your core picks and captain selection with others rotated in and out as you see fit.
All of the stats used to create this blog are available on t20headtohead.com
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