Mumbai take on Rajasthan in their IPL 2015 encounter on Saturday.
Although they have played nine fixtures at the “halfway” stage of the 2015 Pepsi Indian Premier League (IPL) to all the other teams seven, the Rajasthan Royals are looking to be in a good position, as the season enters its second half. They have 12 points, and trail the Chennai Super Kings only on overall run rate.
That total gives them a five point advantage over the chasing pack, and on Friday they face the Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, with the home team having managed just two wins so far in the 2015 campaign, which leaves them in bottom but one position, ahead of the Kings XI Punjab on overall run rate.
The sides have already met in the 2015 tournament at the Sardar Patel Stadium, Motera, Ahmedabad. On that occasion, the Royals eased home by a seven wicket margin with nearly an over to spare. Mumbai will possibly remember that match however, as the game in which Aaron Finch injured himself, and brought his tournament to a premature end.
The Royals have the current wearer of the Orange Cap in their ranks, with Rahane having posted 323 runs at a strike rate of over 120 in his seven innings. Mumbai themselves have the fifth highest scorer in the tournament during the first half of the season, with Rohit Sharma scoring 244 runs, but at a strike rate well in advance of Rahane’s. Sharma’s runs coming at a rate of over 155.
If there is one thing that the Mumbai Indians have excelled at this season, it is striking sixes. They have four of the leading hitters of maximums at this point of the season. Kieron Pollard has 13 to his name, putting him just two behind the leading hitter of maximums, New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum. Rohit Sharma is only just behind with 12 sixes, while Harbhajan Singh and Corey Anderson have hit eight and six respectively.