Focus on Rohit, Kohli in MIRCB faceoff
TITANS BOWLING
Umesh 40471, Johnson 40370, Rashid 40181, Noor 40430, Mohit 40511.
GUJARAT TITANS
B. Sai Sudharsan lbw b Kuldeep Sen 35 (29b, 3x4, 1x6), Shubman Gill st. Samson b Chahal 72 (44b,
Matthew Wade b Kuldeep Sen 4 (6b), Abhinav Manohar b Kuldeep Sen 1 (2b),
Vijay Shankar b Chahal 16 (10b,
Rahul Tewatia run out 22
Shahrukh Khan
(Impact Player in place of Mohit) lbw b Avesh 14 (8b, 1x4,
Rashid Khan (not out) 24
Noor Ahmad (not out) 0 Extras (lb3, nb1, w7): 11; Total (for seven wkts. in 20 overs): 199.
FALL OF WICKETS
Green and Rohit at a practice session. EMMANUAL YOGINI
Besides being the leading lights of the Indian – and international – cricket fraternity for well over a decade for the last dozen editions of the Indian Premier League (IPL), at least one of them has led his team in one of the most highprofile IPL rivalries. For the first time after IPL 2011, however, neither of them will be involved in the toss.
Still, such is their stature that the focus will firmly be on Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli as Mumbai Indians hosts Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Wankhede Stadium on Thursday. No doubt, there are numerous other aspects that will be carefully followed by either camp but the duo will obviously be the showstoppers.
Both Rohit and Kohli will be aware that they will have to translate their reputation into a matchwinning knock come Thursday. After all, their teams have had a mediocre start to the IPL.
It will also be interesting
to see whether the Australian duo of Glenn Maxwell and Cameron Green – who have been far from impressive so far – can come good at their former IPL home ground.
Similarly, MI will be banking on Suryakumar Yadav to get into the runscoring mode to build on the quick starts offered by Rohit and Ishan Kishan so far.
Just like Sunday – when 439 runs were scored – the bowlers could well have a nightmarish experience midweek. Unless of course the bowlers can keep Kohli and Rohit in check!