IPL 2021 Match Prediction: Royal Challengers Bangalore versus Mumbai Indians. 39th Match. Who Will Win?

The 39th match of the 2021 Indian Premier League will see the Mumbai Indians take on the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the 39th match of the competition. This is the tenth match since the IPL 2021 resumption, and we are yet to have a boring game. Every match has been fascinating and we are certain that this one is not going to be an exception to that. Read on to find out our IPL prediction for who we think will go on to win this match.

Mumbai Indians Team News

The Mumbai Indians are known for getting off to a slow start, and they have lived up to this stereotype once again by losing their first two games after the resumption. They have now slipped into the second half of the table and will be eager to get a win under their belt, so they do not drift away from the play-off spots.

The Mumbai Indians probably thought they had somewhat of a competitive total against the Kolkata Knight Riders when they scored 155 runs from their allotted 20 overs, but this could not have been further from the truth as their opponents chased their score down with nearly five overs to spare.

While they will be disappointed to have lost another match, they can take comfort from the fact that Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock put on a very solid opening partnership of 78. However, it is safe to say that there will be a little bit of concern regarding the form of Ishan Kishan. Last year, he scored 516 runs from 13 innings at an average of 57.33, but during the 2021 edition he has only scored 98 runs from seven innings.

While 155 is not a massive score, it is one that should have been more competitive. The fact that it was not can only be put down to a poor bowling performance. Jasprit Bumrah was the pick of their bowlers with three wickets, but he still conceded 43 runs from the four overs that he bowled. Trent Boult, Adam Milne, Krunal Pandya, and Rahul Chahar bowled 11 overs between them and conceded 112 runs. They are going to have to perform a lot better if they are going to prevent it being three defeats from three in the UAE.

Royal Challengers Bangalore Team News

The Royal Challengers Bangalore started off with an embarrassing defeat to the Kolkata Knight Riders, being bowled out for 92 runs to lose the match by 9 wickets with 10 overs still to spare.

They put on a much better batting performance in their second match of the resumption against the Chennai Super Kings. However, with Virat Kohli getting back into form and scoring 53 from 41 balls and Devdutt Padikkal scoring 70 runs from 50 balls at the top of the order, they would have hoped for a higher scorer. However, the lost five wickets for 16 runs, which obviously slowed down their innings.

While their batsmen let them down when they were bowled out for 92, it was their bowlers time to disappoint the fans. The Chennai Super Kings comfortably made it to 71/0, and despite the fact that Faf du Plessis and Ruturaj Gaikwad both got out with the score on 71, their bowlers could not make any big inroads to give them the win that they desperately needed. The Chennai Super Kings got home with 11 balls to spare.

Coin Toss

There has been 61 T20 games played at this stadium and 34 of them have been won by the team that batted first, while 26 of them were won by the team batting second. Therefore, it seems that the team batting first seems to have a slight advantage over the team batting second, which is why we feel that the winning captain will be tempted to put their team in to bat first should they go ahead and win the coin toss.

Pitch Conditions

This is not the easiest pitch to score on as can be seen from the fact that the average T20 first innings score on the wicket at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium is 144. However, it seems to get harder to bat on as the match progresses since the average second innings score at this stadium is a mere 122 runs. So, the team that bats first will aim for a score of at least 160 to give themselves a very good chance of winning the match. Also, the fact that the average second innings score is so low is another reason why the captain that wins the toss will likely request to bat first.

Our Match Winner

On their day, we believe that both of these are pretty evenly matched, so it is not easy to choose a winner from the two. However, considering the performances of both teams during this resumption, we feel that the Royal Challengers Bangalore have the edge in the batting department, and that this is what will see them to their first win in this second part of the 2021 IPL. It will also be their first win in the UAE in eight matches.

Our match winner: