Indian Premier League
oyal Challengers B a n g a l o r e ’ s sw a s h b u c k l i n g batsman Chris Gayle will miss today’s away game against Mumbai Indians after the West Indian flew back home to meet his newborn son.
Gayle wanted to be with his partner Natasha Berridge, and the 36- year- old posted his picture on Instagram yesterday and wrote ‘ I’m on my way, Baby’, referring to his partner.
Bangalore’s young batsman Sarfaraz Khan confirmed the news ahead of their match against Mumbai.
“Gayle has become a father, so he has gone home to visit his family and son,” Sarfaraz said at the pre- match press conference here.
In team’s first match of IPL this season, Sarfaraz smashed 10- ball 35 in the death overs against Sunrisers Hyderabad and said his knock was applauded by the seniors in the team.
“Want to give my best in this IPL. After the first match this season, the seniors gave a lot of confidence to me and told me to keep on playing my natural game and play according to the situation,” he said.
Meanwhile, despondent Mumbai Indians will aim to get back to winning ways against an explosive batting power of Royal Challengers Bangalore.
After getting off to a losing start to their campaign against Rising Pune Supergiants, defending champions Mumbai came back strongly with a
Mumbai Indians:
Rohit Sharma ( captain), Harbhajan Singh, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Jos Buttler, Kieron Pollard, Corey Anderson, Lasith Malinga, Martin Guptill, Mitchell McClenaghan, Marchant de Lange, Tim Southee, Unmukt Chand, Vinay Kumar, Parthiv Patel, Shreyas Gopal, Nathu Singh, Jagadeesha Suchith, Ambati Rayudu, Akshay Wakhare, Deepak Punia, Jitesh Sharma, Kishore Kamath, Krunal Pandya, Nitish Rana, Siddhesh Lad.
Royal Challengers Bangalore:
Shane Watson, Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers, Virat Kohli ( captain), Stuart Binny, Samuel Badree, Iqbal Abdulla, Sreenath Aravind, Kedar Jadhav, Vikramjeet Malik, Kane Richardson, Varun Aaron, Mandeep Singh, Abu Nechim, Adam Milne, Mitchell Starc, Yuzvendra Chahal, Harshal Patel, Travis Head, David Wiese, Sachin Baby, Lokesh Rahul, Parvez Rasool, Vikas Tokas, Sarfaraz Khan, Praveen Dubey, Akshay Karnewar.
Schedule Today’s match
Mumbai Indians v Royal Challengers Bangalore in Mumbai Start time: 6.30pm UAE Live telecast on OSN Sports HD Cricket thumping win over Kolkata Knight Riders, but suffered two consecutive loses against Gujarat Lions and Sunrisers Hyderabad to have them tottering in the seventh position in the points table with just two points from four games.
Failure to get their team combination right has resulted in a series of losses for Mumbai.
On the other hand, the Virat Kohli- led Bangalore have only played two games, winning convincingly against Hyderabad but losing to Delhi Daredevils in the last match and sit fourth with two points from as many games.
But today, it will be a fresh start for both the sides and Mumbai will look to make the best use of the home conditions and get their third IPL title hopes back on track.
New Zealand’s hard- hitting opener Martin Guptill, who made his IPL debut against Hyderabad on Monday, failed to make an impact. Except Rohit’s unbeaten 84 against Kolkata, the side has been inconsistent with the bat in all three games, failing to post competitive totals, which resulted in giving their bowlers very less to bowl at.
Parthiv Patel, despite getting starts failed to convert it into big scores, while Jos Buttler, Ambati Rayudu, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya has not been among the runs. The side’s batting has been too dependent on the skipper and the extra burden on his shoulders proved costly in most occasions this season.
The absence of veteran pacer and death overs specialist Lasith Malinga is hurting Mumbai. The Sri Lankan has been ruled out of the tournament after knee injury.