As expected, Mumbai win the game and that too comprehensively! Boosts their NRR and they have put themselves about RCB and PBKS in terms of NRR.
MI need this kind of a true batting beauty, for their batsmen to make an impact. A sluggish pitch or 150-160 pitch tests their batsmen and they don't have the bowlers to take full advantage of such pitches. Hope other teams are taking good notes
I definitely see MI in the playoffs from here. Two more home games on a pitch that's conducive to their explosive batting and they need 2 wins to seal playoffs.
RCB - I think they are not going to make the playoffs this time. They face Rajasthan and Hyderabad in away games and I can definitely see Rajasthan putting it beyond RCB in that Jaipur game. Also RCB's last game at home is against Gujarat Titans. RCB will have to hope they are alive by then and also hope that GT would've sealed the Top 2 position before that game so that GT can play it easy.
CSK are finding no use for Ben Stokes and are keeping him out of the XI despite him being available for selection. He is turning out to be "Andrew Flintoff 2.0" for CSK. With CSK having Ajinkya Rahane to do stop gap captaincy, Ruturaj as a long term option and others like Moeen and Conway as backups for captaincy, CSK wont need Stokes' leadership. I wont be surprised if CSK release Stokes and try to get Curran back, coz Curran can bowl death-PP.
No chance in hell that they will release Pathirana. We've found a real express fast death bowler with a slingy action.
