IPL 2024 KKR v RCB Preview - Sri Lankan cricketer abducted by aliens

Key match stats

Pitch Stats – IPL records at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium

Pitch Report Sawai Mansingh Stadium 10 most recent IPL matches

Team form RR vs MI
RR: WWLWW
MI: LWWLW

Recent meetings: IPL 2024 - RR won by 6 wickets

Weather

General Forecast: Dry and Clear
Chance of dew: Low

Preview RR vs MI

These 2 sides come into this fixtures off the back of victories in their last games that will have provided differing emotions.

For the Royals, Jos Buttler's 2nd century of the season saw them to a priceless win in the top of the table clash with KKR. That hundred, the 7th of his IPL career, pushes him up to 2nd on the all time list of century makers in this tournament. Only Virat Kohli who has played over 140 more games than Buttler has more!

Batsman	IPL matches	IPL centuries
V Kohli	244	8
JC Buttler	102	7
CH Gayle	142	6
KL Rahul	125	4
SR Watson	145	4
DA Warner	143	4

With his red ball career for England now seemingly over, then if Buttler can remain fit there is no reason to suspect that he can't play another 60 to 80 IPL matches and push that number well into double figures.

Fitness for Buttler is not just a long term consideration but a short term issue too. He missed the victory over PBKS and looked dead on his feet at the end of the KKR match. We wait to learn whether that was a combination of exhaustion and cramp or a more serious injury that could rule him out for a longer period.

As for MI, they made what was looking like a routine win against Punjab into a bit of a nervy finish. Again, the real question mark over this MI side is how they can overcome the drop off in quality between Bumrah and everyone else in their bowling attack?

Gerald Cotzee bowled with great pace and skill against PBKS and looks to have established his place in this MI attack but the recent performances of Romario Shepherd and Akash Madhwal leave a lot to be desired.

Equally confusing is the continued inclusion of Mohammed Nabi. The veteran Afghan all-rounder batted at number 8 in the match against PBKS and didn't bowl. In fact, in 4 appearances to date in IPL 2024, Nabi has bowled just 6 overs and faced just 8 deliveries.

Against a Rajasthan side with 3 right-handers in their top 4, I can't see very much value in persisting with the off-spinners inclusion. For me, I'd be picking either Shepherd or Nabi and looking to bring in another frontline bowler.

In that regard, it's very surprising that we've not seen Nuwan Thushara make an appearance this season. Coming into the tournament, I assumed that the Sri Lankan was going to play a big part in this MI set-up. He was in good form at international level and had spent the months before the IPL playing for MI's SA20 franchise MI Cape Town under the watchful gaze of Mumbai's bowling coach, Lasith Malinga. Has he since been abducted by aliens?

RR MI head to head

MI bowling vs RR batting

Chasing 125 to win against MI earlier in the season, we didn't really get to see how this Royals side would go about putting up a big total versus Bumrah and co.

Bumrah IPL 2024 powerplay record

Bumrah now has the best economy rate of any bowler in the powerplay this season (min 30 balls bowled) and the best economy at the death (7.4) again of any bowler to have bowled more than 30 deliveries in that phase of the game.

Other than the fixture earlier in the season between these 2 where MI were forced by neccesity to play their trump card very early, the only other time that Bumrah has bowled more than 1 powerplay over was in MI's last match against PBKS.

Batsmen	Dismissals v Bumrah	Strike Rate v Bumrah
Jaiswal	1	20.0
Buttler	4	86.7
Samson	2	98.1
Pirag	0	66.7

Rajasthan top 4 head to head vs Bumrah in T20 cricket

Given his record in T20 cricket against RR's top 4 you'd be inclined to think that MI would want to utilise him early again in this match. However, the late charge from PBKS almost realised Mumbai's worst fears - what if we don't have any overs left from Bumrah in a tight situation?

Rajasthan are currently scoring at 12.8 an over during the death (2nd best in IPL 2024 behind KKR) despite having the 3rd worst record in the powerplay (average score of 49.6 after 6 overs). Slow starts don't particularly bother this Royals side, they're happy to make it up later on which might prompt MI to revert to holding Bumrah back.

One man who has been a bit of a surprise package so far in IPL 2024 is Shreyas Gopal. His last really impactful season in the IPL came in 2019 while playing at this venue for the Rajasthan Royals.

Shreyas Gopal IPL record Sawai Mansingh Stadium

In fact, given the Sawai Mansingh pitch report, MI might be tempted to include a 2nd frontline spinner in their team opening the possibility of a return for Chawla, Shams Mulani or Kumar Kartikeya.

RR bowling vs MI batting

Mumbai will be keen to avoid the kind of horror start they suffered at the hands of Rajsthan's 2 left-armers earlier in the season. Nandre Burger can feel a little aggrieved to have only have played a single game since then given his rounded performances in the 4 matches he has appeared in this season.

Rohit and Ishan Kishan IPL 2024 powerplay records

At the same time, since that top order collapse against RR, Mumbai's opening pair have been in very good form. In fact, after being dismissed first ball by Trent Boult in that match (the 5th time Boult has got Rohit in T20s), Rohit has not been out again in this year's powerplay!

This fixture also provides a head to head as far as India's World Cup squad selection is concerned. Ishan Kishan, Jaiswal and Sanju Samson are all in with a chance of getting a spot either as a keeper batsmen or a left-handed top order option. Performances in this match and over the next month will go a long way to deciding whether their dreams become a reality.

The challenge for MI then becomes about how they play Rajasthan's spinners. Mumbai certainly have the middle order to be able to take on Ashwin and Chahal.

Suryakumar Yadav head to head Ashwin T20 cricket

While some of their players don't enjoy playing at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium, in particular Rohit Sharma who averages just 12 in T20 cricket here, others do. Sky has a career T20 average of 56 and strike rate of 140 in Jaipur where he's scored 2 half centuries in his last 3 appearances.

If Buttler is fit to play then this fixture also provides a head to head between arguably the 2 best T20 batsmen in world cricket. Sky and Buttler's performances are likely to have a massive bearing on the outcome of this match.

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All stats used in this blog are from my own databases which are freely accessible below
IPL player head to head records
IPL player records by stadium
IPL stadium records.
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