Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma
Both have incurred a similar fate in IPL 2020 so far although in a contrasting manner. While defending champions Mumbai Indians had lost to Chennai Super Kings in their opener, they bounced back strongly to defeat Kolkata Knight Riders earlier this week. Royal Challengers Bangalore, on the other hand, had defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad in their opener by 10 runs before being thrashed heavily by Kings XI Punnjab this week. Can Mumbai contiue with their winning run or will RCB manage to bounce back with a win against the four-time winners?
Head-to-head tie: Mumbai Indians have a very dominating record against Royal Challengers Bangalore in T20 history, winning 18 of their 27 matches and 16 of their 25 meetings in IPL. The run also includes Mumbai's win in six of their last seven encounters. However, RCB had defeated Mumbai in their only meeting on UAE soil, also incidentally in Dubai, in IPL 2014. AB de Villiers and Parthiv Patel had guided to seven-wicket win in a low-scoring affair in 2014.
Crucial stats:
- Virat Kohli is the highest run-getter in the rivalry contest with 683 runs, but the RCB captain hasn't had a good start to his IPL 2020 campaign in the UAE, scoring 14 and 1 in his first two matches. Moreover, he will have to stay wary of Trent Boult, against whom the Indian has managed 28 runs off 22 balls without a dismissal, given Kohli's weakness against left-arm pace. He averages the least and falls more often than against any other variety in T20s since 2018. In IPL 2020, both his dismissals were by a left-arm pacer - T Natarajan and Sheldon Cottrell.
- Another interesting match up will be Ab de Villiers against Jasprit Bumrah. Both unorthodox in their technique and both limited-overs specialists and both have an edge over another in the contest - 71 runs, 60 balls two wickets. However, it is Krunal Pandya who holds the answer to stopping De Villiers. He has dismissed the veteran batsman four times in six meetings with De Villiers scoring at run-a-ball rate.
- Rohit Sharma managed to find his form with a dominating 80-run knock against KKR. But RCB have just the right bowling option to stop his carnage. Virat Kohli might be tempted to use Yuzvendra Chahal early on in the contest against whom, Rohit has managed 29 runs off 31 balls with one dismissal. But moreover, Rohit has fallen to leg spinners nine times since IPL 2017. In the opener, MS Dhoni had used a similar tactic by bringing in Piyush Chawla early in the game.
- It will be Kohli's 150th T20 match as captain. He will become the third Indian to reach the mark after MS Dhoni and Gautam Gambhir and fourth overall.
- Rohit, with 4990 career IPL runs, needs 10 more to reach 5000-run mark. He will become the third batsman after Suresh Raina and Kohli.
