Brabourne will play host to the 14th game of this season’s IPL when Mumbai Indians play the Royal Challengers Bangalore. Both the sides have won two games each and at the end of the match, one side would have got to the top of the points table with six points.

Mumbai Indians have been propped up nicely by Sachin Tendulkar (3/1 at Ladbrokes to top-score for Mumbai) and their Indian middle-order. Saurabh Tiwary (11/2 at Bet Fred to top-score for the side) has been so impressive that he has even pushed the West Indian duo of Dwayne Bravo (6/1 at Stan James to be Mumbai’s best batsman) and Kieron Pollard (6/1 at Bet Fred to top-score for Mumbai) down the order. Tendulkar had surprised a lot of fans with his captaincy the other day when he sent in Ambati Rayadu (6/1 at Sky Bet to be Mumbai’s best batsman) up the order, when he could have easily trusted his more senior batsmen.

Rayadu delivered the goods well, and it will now be interesting to see whether the captain changes the batting order depending on what the situation is or continues with the same.

Bangalore started off badly, losing to the Kolkata Knight Riders, but came back well to defeat Punjab and Rajasthan. Their true test will, obviously, come now, and despite the presence of Jacques Kallis (5/2 at Sky Bet to top-score for his side), the middle order will need to take up the gauntlet. This is because, the Mumbai middle-over bowlers may be much more difficult to rid off than the others. This will mean that the likes of Robin Uthappa (6/1 at Ladbrokes to be the best batsman for Bangalore), who has had only one decent bat, and Virat Kohli (6/1 at Stan James to top-score for his side) who has also yet to get going in this tournament, will need to come to the party.

The one batsman who will need a long time out there is Rahul Dravid (6/1 at Sky Bet to be the best batsman for his side). In the three games so far, he has batted only once, and has not scored too many. Apart from that, he has also dropped a couple of sitters in the three games, and he will definitely look to make it count at Brabourne.

For me, Mumbai (8/11 at Ladbrokes) look the stronger of the two batting sides, but with Praveen Kumar having only just taken a hat-trick in the previous game, Bangalore’s (13/10 at Boylesports) bowling looks more solid. Difficult, then, to choose between the two!

Tips:
Favourites: Mumbai Indians (8/11 at Ladbrokes)
Top Mumbai batsman: Kieron Pollard (6/1 at Bet Fred)
Top Bangalore batsman: Rahul Dravid (6/1 at Sky Bet)