Preview MI vs RR IPL 2021, Match 24, April 29th, Arun Jaitley Stadium. MI vs RR head to head player stats and records. Team news and match predictions for MI vs RR.
Key match stats MI vs RR preview
Venue Stats – Arun Jaitley Stadium
- Average first innings: 163
- Average first innings winning score: 180
- Average powerplay score: 48
- All-time win % batting 1st vs batting 2nd: 49% / 50%
Find full venue stats and records here
Team form MI vs RR preview
- MI – LLWWL
- RR – WLLWL
- Recent meetings: IPL 2020, MI won by 57 runs, RR won by 8 wickets
MI vs RR preview
It’s been a while since we’ve written a preview for MI or RR with both franchises enjoying a relatively long break since their last matches.
For MI, the rest and change of venue couldn’t have come soon enough with the reigning champions looking jaded and perplexed in their last outing against the Punjab Kings. In previous years, MI have had a very good record playing in Chennai including in 2019 (the last time the tournament was hosted in India) so it’s strange to see them struggle so much in IPL 2021. That they let Moises Henriques and Deepak Hooda bowl 5 overs in the powerplay in that match without really attacking them beggers belief and was perhaps a reaction to the way they over attacked vs Delhi in the game before. Whatever the reason, now is the time for the real Mumbai Indians to stand up and begin to win matches.
MI’s opponents in this fixture have been probably the hardest team to predict form wise all season. RR seem to be brilliant in one match and terrible in the next! To be fair to them they are having to overcome the loss of players on an almost daily basis at the moment with the likes of Stokes and Archer ruled out through injury and Tye and Livingstone opting to travel home. Still, it’s meant an opportunity for a few guys who probably thought that they’d be carrying drinks for the majority of the season and with 2 wins to date Rajasthan are within the chasing pack for 4th place as we enter the middle phase of the round robin stage a fact that they can be happy about given the circumstances.
MI vs RR head to head stats
MI bowling vs RR batting
To date it has been the Mumbai bowlers that have kept them in the tournament with their accurate bowling at both ends of the innings. Trent Boult knows this venue well from his time here with Delhi Capitals and he wracked up some impressive stats at the Arun Jaitley Stadium during that stint
With the wickets at the Arun Jaitley often being on the slower side, Mumbai’s spinners should also enjoy playing here and while we don’t have much of a sample size, Rahul Chahar took 3 wickets on his one and only visit to Delhi in the IPL.
As for Rajasthan Royals, they too have a former Delhi employee on their books with Sanju Samson having spent a largely unsuccessful period at the franchise 5 years ago. RR will certainly need him to improve on these stats at the Arun Jaitley stadium over the coming games.
Head to head wise, both RR’s star batsmen have favourable records against the MI spinners in particular vs Krunal Pandya who has failed to get either Samson or Buttler out in previous encounters and perhaps even more surprisingly has gone for a few runs as well.
However, the question remains as to whether either batsmen will still be at the crease by the time the likes of Pandya and Chahar come onto bowl! Buttler has looked short of form and confidence so far this IPL and while Samson has been his mercurial self, his head to head stats against MI’s pace attack is poor.
RR bowling vs MI batting
This match sees the side with the best bowling economy in the powerplay up against a team that has struggled to get off to a fast start in IPL 2021. Part of RR’s success in the opening 6 overs has been driven by the conditions at the Wankhede where they played their opening 5 games of IPL 2021 but they are still head and shoulders ahead of anyone other side at restricting the opposition in that phase of the game.
As for MI, the likes of Quinton de Kock and Rohit Sharma have lacked any kind of fluency at the top of the order while the only man looking in decent form, Suryakumar Yadav, was inexplicably bumped down the the order in their match against PBKS, surely not a mistake that will be repeated again here! Although of some concern for MI is the fact that Sky only averages 18 at this venue on previous visits.
Perhaps even more concerning for MI is the form of their much vaunted middle order who last season made mince meat of pretty much every bowling attack. This season however, Hardik Pandya has contributed just 36 runs at a strike rate of under 100, while last seasons leading six hitter, Ishan Kishan, has to date delivered just 2 maximums from 88 balls faced. Yes, conditions have been difficult but other teams and players have found a way to get more runs on the board than MI have so far.
The Rajasthan bowling attack also have the advantage of having a couple of players who know the conditions at the Arun Jaitley very well as a result of time spent playing here. Both Chris Morris and Jaydev Unadkat had relatively successful periods at the franchise and have taken 14 and 11 wickets respectively at this venue.
All IPL player head to head records can be found here
