Table leaders RCB out of comfort zone | PunterPolls Prediction

Halfway through the tournament, Royal Challengers Bangalore are in pole position, tied on points with Chennai Super Kings but ahead on net run rate. They have played a huge chunk of their home games in a cluster, and made the most of familiar conditions and vociferous support, winning six out of six at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Their two losses have been away games.

For their next six matches, starting with Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede, Royal Challengers will be traveling the country. Away from the comfort of their surroundings, their consistency will be put to test. Royal Challengers should guard against peaking too early, and their coach Ray Jennings said their early success will count for nothing if they lose focus in their second round of games. A pleasing aspect for Royal Challengers is that their two leading wicket-takers are Indians, Vinay Kumar and RP Singh.

Mumbai Indians are a better team on paper than their position in the points table - No. 6 - suggests. They sprung a surprise when Ricky Ponting opted out of the previous match and handed over the captaincy to Rohit Sharma. Mumbai scrambled to a five-wicket win against Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens, and with their next six games at home they have a chance to get back into the top four. What remains to be seen is whether Ponting returns.

PunterPolls Prediction

RCB v MI, the match everyone is waiting to begin. Two teams with big names will clash again at Mumbais home ground. In their first encounter, RCB have won the match rather dramatically. RCB was batting first after loosing the toss and didn't get very good start. They lost 3 wickets at the score of 31, but with the help of Gayle's power innings they managed to put up a decent total of 154. Mumbai Indians after very good start lost their way in the middle and as usual came under pressure and lost the game in last over. Biggest mistake done MI in that match was sending Pollard at the last moment. Punters had supported RCB in that match.

By this time, RCB been supported by 60% of punters and if you look at the betting odds (which is 1.91 RCB), RCB is marginally favorite for bookies - rougly 52%.

In our experts opinion, RCB's record of playing outside their comfortable zone (rather say Den) is not that great. They have lost both of their games against Risers and CSK in this season. On other hand, MI who always under pressure while chasing have shown superb cricket against KKR and that too at Kolkata's home ground. 

To keeping all things in mind we would like to go with Mumbai Indians.

For our experts predictions and comments please connected to us via our Facebook Page.

Please note: We are not saving your password with us, your authentication will be done by their respective APIs.