Mumbai Indians v Royal Challengers Bangalore - IPL 5 - Toss Report
Wednesday, May 09: In the 54th match of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL), Royal Challengers Bangalore have won the toss and elected to bowl first against Mumbai Indians in a match that will be played at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.
With the fifth season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) heading towards its end, the stakes are getting higher and higher, where every win or loss counts.
At the moment each team wants to pin a place in the playoffs which means they have to end among the top four teams.
Today’s match is not different where Mumbai Indians will be looking to consolidate or better their third spot on the points table, whereas for Royal Challengers Bangalore, who are currently at seventh place, things are a bit messier as they need every win they can get now without affording a loss.
A negative for RCB is the departure of their regular skipper, Daniel Vettori, who is back home to get a knee injury which has plagued the New Zealand cricketer since the ICC 2011 World Cup. In his place Virat Kohli will now be leading the team in the remainder of the tournament.
Pitch Report:
The wicket looks a bit damp, but has a perfect limited overs pitch which will have enough juice for both batsmen and bowlers to take full advantage of.
Comments by skippers:
RCB skipper Virat Kohli: Love this stadium. Always enjoyed cricket at this ground, the atmosphere is brilliant. It's a challenge and a learning curve for me to captain a side with so many experienced players. Playing in Mumbai against Mumbai is always big. We'll just look to execute our plans and play well.
Mumbai skipper Harbhajan Singh: We would like to concentrate on good cricket and results will follow. We have been playing terrific cricket in the last week and we'll look to continue. We have to be there and do our best, we've been fighting till the last ball in our games and that's the way T20 goes.
Teams:
Royal Challengers Bangalore (Playing XI):
Tillakaratne Dilshan, Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli(c), AB de Villiers(w), Saurabh Tiwary, Mayank Agarwal, Syed Mohammad Jamaluddin, Vinay Kumar, Zaheer Khan, Harshal Patel, Muttiah Muralitharan
Mumbai Indians (Playing XI):
Sachin Tendulkar, James Franklin, Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik(w), Ambati Rayudu, Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Smith, Harbhajan Singh(c), Lasith Malinga, RP Singh, Pragyan Ojha
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