Buoyed by their emphatic eight-wicket victory over Delhi Daredevils on Sunday, Mumbai Indians are raring to take on home team Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on Tuesday in the Indian Premier League T20 at the Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore.
“We are very happy with the way the team played in Delhi to win convincingly. The huge victory gave lot of confidence to the lads, especially the outstanding performance of (Lasith) Malinga who took the game away from Daredevils,” Mumbai Indians bowling coach Shaun Pollock told reporters on Monday.
With the runners-up of the third edition of the IPL retaining most of its previous players in the squad, the team management is keen to rotate the players in the initial games to assess their depth in both the departments - batting and bowling.
“We will decide on the final 11 members after assessing the pitch and the playing conditions. We are aware of the home advantage RCB will have. We may rotate some players not for the sake of it but to give everyone an opportunity to play and perform to their potential,” Pollock said.
Expressing confidence that Malinga would maintain his form as in their first game in Delhi, the former South African fast bowler said the Sri Lankan pacer was their strike bowler and would be able to perform on any good pitch.
“In this shorter version, he (Malinga) has been very successful even in the previous tournaments. He is accurate and dependable. He is in good form and able to bowl with variation,” Pollock added.
Meanwhile, Delhi Daredevils will have to get their act together pretty quickly as they take on a determined Rajasthan Royals in their second match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Tuesday.
Led by wily spin legend Shane Warne, Rajasthan, who were the inaugural IPL champions, have made a good start to their campaign beating Deccan Chargers in their opening match.
All set for their first home game of the event at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Hyderabad, Rajasthan would undoubtedly be on a high after the comprehensive seven-wicket win in their tournament-opener.
From the inaugural edition itself, Rajasthan have never quite had the star-power to be rated among the favourites but in Warne, they have the master strategist to get the most out of the limited talent at their disposal.
This time, Rajasthan also have the experience of veteran Indian batsman Rahul Dravid and New Zealand dasher Ross Taylor.
Imposing Kiwi all-rounder Jacob Oram is another key player while South African Johan Botha adds more weight to their batting.
On the bowling front, Warne himself remains quite a force despite being out of international cricket for quite some time now.
Delhi, on the other hand, crashed rather badly in their opening match against Mumbai Indians.
Without the likes of Gautam Gambhir and Paul Collingwood this season, Delhi’s batting relies heavily on skipper Virender Sehwag and the destructive-but-inconsistent Aussie David Warner.
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