The second match of the 2010 IPL, and the first “day” game, starts in about half an hour at 3:00pm IST. Its the Mumbai Indians, who’ve won the toss, taking on the Rajasthan Royals. Do you notice what was missing there? Ok, its Sachin’s Mumbai vs Warne’s Rajasthan. There seems to be a strong contrast in these first few IPL games…. Yesterday featured the champions vs the eight best side in the tournament. Today features the richest franchise vs the one bought for the lowest amount. To the game and the hype is around Sachin vs Warne and Sachin vs Tait, which should tell you how much Mumbai are going to depend on Sachin, given Bravo and Pollard are busy with the Zimbabweans at the moment, but don’t discount Jayasuriya and Malinga having a strong impact on the game.
Rajasthan are almost a new side with all their additions and Shane Warne is hoping for big things from Jhunjhunwala. With Graeme Smith and Damien Martyn the side should finally have some stability at the top of the order and its the explosive Yousuf Pathan, who’s been in a six hitting frenzy in recent times, who could take this game away in an instant. Their bowling, which has always been their strength, now has Shaun Tait (is this a good or bad thing?) to join Munaf Patel and Warne as spearheads of the attack. It should be a closer game than you think, and I for one definitely don’t place the Royals as the underdogs.
SoaL’s Prediction: A close match, but the Royals will prevail unless a certain Sachin Tendulkar has a major say.
SoaL’s Top Batting Pick: Yousuf Pathan, who blasted 10 sixes in a warm-up game to score 80 odd of around 30 balls, and also score a blistering 200 in a recent domestic match with over 14 sixes in the second innings to go with 9 in the first I think. (will look this up)
SoaL’s Top Bowling Pick: Lasith Malinga, because Warne’s gonna go for a few sixes and Tait’s gonna have a mental breakdown again…
