Mumbai Indians vs Royal Challengers Bangalore, 48th Match - Live Cricket Score, Commentary

Teams:

Royal Challengers Bangalore (Playing XI): Devdutt Padikkal, Josh Philippe(w), Virat Kohli(c), AB de Villiers, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Shivam Dube, Chris Morris, Washington Sundar, Dale Steyn, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal

Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Ishan Kishan, Quinton de Kock(w), Suryakumar Yadav, Saurabh Tiwary, Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard(c), Krunal Pandya, James Pattinson, Rahul Chahar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah

Build up

Hello and welcome to the live blog for tonight's titanic clash featuring Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore. I call it titanic because these two sides have been great this season and are currently occupying the top two slots. So the possibility of them taking on each other one more time or even twice is quite high over the next few days. For MI, topping the points table is not a big deal. They have been in this scenario multiple times and their consistency has resulted in them winning four titles. But for RCB, it's quite a turnaround especially after three successive disappointing campaigns. They have been consistent this year and would love to become the first team to get to 16 points this season - a tally that usually guarantees a playoff spot. Technically though, five teams can still finish with 16 points this season so a win tonight will not certainly guarantee either of these sides a place in the final four. Courtesy of their NRR, MI's chances of confirming their spot in the playoffs will be extremely high though if they manage to win tonight.

Historically, these two sides have been involved in some memorable games over the years but not many can top the contest they had exactly a month ago. To replicate that is going to be almost improbable. Three men registered fifties for RCB that night to help them post 201. MI needed 90 runs from the final five overs in the run chase after making a poor start. In an ideal world, victory should have been just a mere formality at that stage for the bowling side. But with MI, you never know what's coming your way. They never say die and that spirit was fully visible that night as Ishan Kishan and Kieron Pollard stunned Kohli and company with an assault that saw the game end in a tie. RCB eventually came out on top in the ensuing super over but they definitely learnt a valuable lesson that night.

RCB brought in Moeen Ali in their last game and even though he didn't make an impact, they would ideally want to give him more game time to see what he can come up with ahead of the playoffs. Moeen's presence in the middle order can also give the likes of Kohli and de Villiers more liberty and hand the side another handy spin option. They have been persistent with Aaron Finch even though he hasn't been amongst the runs this season. That is unlikely to change tonight. For MI, Ishan did a great job as an opener in the absence of regular skipper Rohit Sharma and at least one member from that middle order has managed to constantly step up. Let's hope these two sets of players can put on a show once again especially after last night's one-sided encounter.