Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Mumbai Indians - IPL 2022 Match 18: Who Will Win?

Royal Challengers Bangalore Team Preview

The Royal Challengers Bangalore stumbled into the tournament but managed to turn this around with now two wins from three to their name. They currently sit sixth in the table with a Net Run Rate of +0.159. They handed the Rajasthan Royals their first loss on Tuesday after delivering an exciting match to the fans. The Challengers showcased a dramatic rollercoaster of events, managing to finally seal their victory with just five balls to spare and snapped up two crucial points.

Skipper Faf du Plessis and Anuj Rawat got the squad off to a fantastic start, however after their dismissals, the middle order took a turn. Between Virat Kohli, David Willey, and Sherfane Rutherford, they scored just 10 runs from 18 balls. The IPL betting market for total ducks in a match is typically over/under 1.5. Willey was out for a duck; however, we don’t expect to see this happen again.

Dinesh Karthik changed the game for the Challengers and his performance deservedly won him Player of the Match. Alongside Shabaz Ahmed, the duo managed to add a total of 67 runs together, with Karthik eventually taking the team across the victory line.

The five bowlers all bowled four overs each, and between them, managed to take three wickets. Harshal Patel was the most economical bowler conceding 18 runs to give him an economy of 4.50. David Willey conceded 29 runs, and Wanindu Hassaranga conceded 32 runs. Hassaranga took a wicket which bumped him into tied fourth place for most wickets taken (6) in the tournament so far. He could be a good candidate for top bowler if you are online cricket betting on the match today.

Mumbai Indians Team Preview

Lingering near the bottom of the table, the Mumbai Indians are really having a tough time finding their footing in this year’s tournament. They have lost all three matches so far and have a Net Run Rate of -1.362. Their last match against the Kolkata Knight Riders will be a particularly difficult one to shake, as they showed dominance in the Powerplay and controlled the middle phase well. The win for the Indians was snatched out of their hands by Pat Cummins who scored an extraordinary 56 runs off 15 balls (four 4’s & six 6’s). Cummins joins KL Rahul to share the achievement of fastest fifty in the IPL tournament history.

Captain Rohit Sharma stated that despite the disappointing loss, he was happy with the squad in the last five overs to get over 70 runs. We are yet to see Sharma ‘fire up’ and showcase his talents. Highlights of the batters would be Suryakumar Yadav and Keiron Pollard. Yadav was the saviour for the squad, racking up 52 runs from 36 balls, achieving five 4’s and two 6’s. Pollard wrapped up for the Indians, scoring a whopping 22 runs from 5 balls (not out), to give him a phenomenal strike rate of 440.0. A lowlight would have to be Ishan Kishan. He struggled at the crease, only scoring 14 runs from 21 balls, for a disappointing strike rate of 66.67. Despite this poor performance, he still claims a few achievements in the IPL so far, such as placing second for most runs (149), third for top batting average (74.50), and two first place spots for most 50’s (2) and most 4’s (17).

There are many interesting markets for an IPL prediction to consider for this match. We think Tilak Varma is a strong choice for an over/under wager at top IPL betting sites . He has really settled into his debut IPL season and is consistently scoring well. So far, we’ve seen scores of 22, 61, and 38, and he currently sits in fourth place for the most runs in the tournament. Varma feels like a confident choice for us to give a solid batting performance for the Indians in the match today.

On the bowling side, there were not many notable performances. No player bowled the maximum four overs. The most economical player was Basil Thampi, conceding 15 runs in three overs, while the most expensive player was Daniel Sams who conceded 50 in three overs. Tymal Mils took two wickets putting him in joint fourth place for most wickets taken (6) in the tournament.

Toss Prediction

In the Indian Premier League so far, if you were having any doubts that the toss wasn’t significant, we’d like you to reconsider as the statistics are speaking for themselves. Whichever captain manages to win the toss will surely breathe a small sigh of relief as the chasing teams have won around 70% of the matches. Only a handful of teams are able to successfully defend their score. No captain has chosen to bat first, in a likely attempt to force their opponents to take the brunt of the dew forming in the evening. Therefore our toss prediction is that the winning captain will chose to bowl first.

Pitch Conditions

The Maharashtra Cricket Association stadium in Pune is the location for Match 16. A score around 170 would be par for the wicket, unless we see another repeat of the Rajasthan Royals in Match 5 who posted a whopping 210/6 and completely decimated the Sunrisers’s score of 149/7. Rohit Sharma commented that the ‘pitch got better and better’ during their match against the Kolkata Knight Riders on Wednesday, and that it was ‘overall a good pitch for cricket’. However, Venkatesh Iyer shared his doubts, describing the pitch as ‘tricky’ and ‘sticky’.