War of CricketCrucial match for Mumbai!
Jaipur: Today Rajasthan will meet Mumbai in a match that is more important for Mumbai than Rajasthan. Rajasthan already has a place in semi finals. But today’s match will decide the position of Mumbai team. Shane Warne’s team is all geared up for their last match at Jaipur. Mumbai looks anxious so will be under pressure.
After being beaten by Delhi in the opening match at the Kotla, the Rajasthan team came back with full power and shocked everybody with its performance. The team has flattened half a dozen opponents at Sawai Mansingh with great efficiency.
Rajasthan is sitting comfortably with its ten wins and is leading the table with 20 points. Team has already confirmed its presence in the final stage of the league in Mumbai. Now a lot depends on Punjab team’s performance if it wins its remaining two matches then the results may go against Warne’s team.
Rajasthan team is a good combination of young players and the experienced players. But today the likely absence of Greame Smith, who made a match winning 91 at Chennai, would make the Rajasthan team vulnerable. Warne may try to open with Kamran Akmal and Swapnil Asnodkar.
Rested against Chennai, Shane Watson will play today and this may prove good for the team. Watson has a good record so far. He has 352 runs and 12 wickets. Siddharth Trivedi, with 10 wickets could be recalled today.
On the other hand Mumbai’s six-match winning spree was halted by Punjab. Defeat against the Delhi on Saturday was another setback to the Mumbai team. So it will add extra pressure on Mumbai’s side.
So far the master blaster also could not perform the way it was expected from him. Jayasuriya and Uthappa are other hopes in batting order. On balling side the best bet is Pollock. Mumbai bowling side will have to be aggressive to counter the striking bats men like Watson and Pathan.
On the other hand the bowlers like Warne and Tanvir may create problems for the Mumbai batting side. Rest, as always nothing can be predicted in T20 so let’s keep the fingers crossed and see what Sawai Mansingh has to offer!
The teams:
Rajasthan (from): Shane Warne (captain), Swapnil Asnodkar, Mohammad Kaif, Yusuf Pathan, Shane Watson, Rajandra Jadeja, Siddharth Trivedi, Mahesh Rawat, Sohail Tanvir, Munaf Patel, Younis Khan, Kamran Akmal, Pankaj Singh, Taruwar Kohli, Dinesh Salunkhe, Graeme Smith.
Mumbai (from): Sachin Tendulkar (captain), Sanath Jayasuriya, Dominic Thornely, Robin Uthappa, Abhishek Nayar, Shaun Pollock, Dilhara Fernando, Yogesh Takawale, Dhaval Kulkarni, Rohan Raje, Ashish Nehra, Andre Nel, Dwayne Smith, Rajesh Pawar, Saurabh Tiwary.