IPL2014: 5th match – Royal Challengers Bangalore v Mumbai Indians, April 19, 2014

Match Preview

Defending champions, Mumbai Indians, will have an opportunity to open their account when they take on the Royal Challengers Bangalore in Match 5 of Pepsi IPL 2014.

Rohit Sharma’s team appeared a rusty unit in their season opener against the Kolkata Knight Riders. Royal Challengers Bangalore were barely challenged in their season opener. Their bowlers were clinical and incisive, shredding through the Delhi Daredevils’ top order in a quick time.

Though it was the bowling attack that set up the match for RCB in their last outing, the biggest positive for the team was the return to form of Yuvraj Singh – the most expensive player in the 2014 Pepsi IPL Player Auction. Put together, Yuvraj, Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers, Kohli, and Albie Morkel make up, perhaps, the most formidable top order in the league.

Mumbai Indians received a lot of criticism for their batting order in the previous match. With an innings restricted to just 120 deliveries, it is a must that the best batsmen in the line-up get to face as many deliveries as possible.

What does our expert think about the game? Read on...

PunterPolls Prediction

We were bit surprised by the MI performance in the opening match of the tournament. They do have quality batsmen in their side and yet they manage to loose with a massive margin. But as mentioned in the match review above, MI been criticized for its decisions. But if you look at the past history of MI, they are always like that. They do play under pressure all the time even with the formidable batting line-up with depth. Especially if they are chasing.

RCB is looking in very good shape, especially with the bowling attack. People think T20 is a game of batsmen, but according to us its bowlers who decide the fate of the game. If you have a good bowling attack you can defend a small total. Here we would like to mention the SRH performance in yesterday's game. Though they lost but they fought well.

Dubai's pitch is batting wicket and we are expecting a big scoring match here. The chasing team should have an advantage but if its MI, one has to think twice. So we have decided to go with RCB today. But then we would like to request our followers to keep an eye at the comment section of the page or be remain on Punter's Wall page. So that you can comment, chat, and reply at the same time and won't miss a single move.

Update (Will repeat comments posted by experts here)

1. MI is 20/1 after 3.5 overs. RCB won the toss and elected to bowl first. Hussy went, Match ODDs 1.62 RCB. And our experts are supporting RCB in this match as of now.
2. MI is struggling now. Pollard just threw away his wicket. It's 78/4 after 13 Overs. Match Odds 1.43 RCB.
3. RCB 18/3. Match Odds 1.47 RCB. Our experts are still with RCB.