IPL 2021 Match Prediction: Mumbai Indians vs Royal Challengers Bangalore. 1st Match. Who will win?

The 2021 IPL is just around the corner and the opening game of the tournament will be between the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and the Mumbai Indians (MI). This is a contest between the yearly underachievers and the most successful team of the IPL. The RCB have reached the IPL final three times but have never won. The MI, on the other hand, have lifted the IPL trophy three times in the last four years. This opening game will take place on the 9^th of April at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.

Read on for our match prediction.

IPL Team Preview: Mumbai Indians

The MI have dominated this competition for years and you cannot help but be amazed at how consistent they have been. In the last two IPL seasons, they have won around 70% of their matches. It will come as no shock to hear that the likes of Ishan Kishan, Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, and Suryakumar Yadav are all regulars in the Indian national T20 team.

Add the likes of Keiron Pollard and Quinton de Kock to the mix, and you have a betting line up that will strike fear into any bowling attack. When their batsmen put a big score on the board, they have the bowlers to defend it in the shape of Rahul Chahar, Krunal Pandya, and Jasprit Bumrah. When it comes to their overseas bowlers, they can call on the likes of Trent Boult, Adam Milne, and Marco Jansen. They really do have all basis covered.

IPL Team Preview: Royal Challengers Bangalore

Virat Kohli will carry on with his quest of finding a team that can help him lift the IPL trophy and he will have some new players to help him try and achieve that this time around. Every season it seems that the RCB rely too heavily on the likes of Kohli and AB de Villiers, so Kohli will be hoping that other teammates perform consistently well this time around. Devdutt Padikkal was amazing in last year's IPL and he is entering this one after some stunning performance in the Vijay Hazare Trophy.

Aside from Kohli and Padikkal, there is a lack of quality Indian batsmen in the team. Ab de Villiers and Glenn Maxwell will play, but this means they need to play one other Indian batsman. Or maybe they will play the all-rounders Daniel Sams and Daniel Christian, and then complete their Indian player quota by including four Indian bowlers. Navdeep Saini, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, and Mohammad Siraj are very decent bowlers that can cause any batsman issues.

Toss Prediction

The team that is fortunate enough to win the coin toss will want to bowl first unless the pitch seems very dry. The teams that are chasing usually have a small advantage (53%) over those who bat first (47%). In 2019, from the eight games that were played at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, four matches were won by those who batted first and four were won by the team that batted second.

Pitch and Conditions

It is expected to be a dry day and the pitch surface will be a little slow. Chennai is always a good place for spinners, and we do not see that changing. There will be some dew as the game wears on, but this varies so much it is not easy to tell how much of an impact it will have. The opening batmen will have the best scoring conditions, while the wrist-spinners will be the hardest ones to get away. The average score at this stadium is 144, but the wicket is usually better to play on at the beginning of the season. Thus, somewhere around 160-170 will probably be a par score.

Our IPL Betting Tip

We are going to go for the Mumbai Indians to win the game as they have a settled line up and quality all through their ranks. We feel that the strength of their batting and quality spin attack are going to be too much to for the Royal Challengers Bangalore to cope with.

Our IPL match prediction: Mumbai Indians to win the opening game of IPL 2021.