IPL-2025: Mumbai Indians to face Royal Challengers Bengaluru at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai
Today, the Mumbai Indians will take on the Royal Challengers Bengaluru at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. The match is scheduled to begin at 7:30 PM.
By now it is well established that Mumbai Indians have a dubious reputation for poor starts. And that is not just in terms of match outcomes alone. They often begin the games just as poorly. Increasingly, their fortunes are being decided in the first six overs – more often than not, for the worse.
The relevant numbers point to a telling picture. In four games, they lost eight wickets in the first six overs – the second-most among all teams – while managing to take only five wickets in return, also the second-worst. Only Punjab Kings have fared worse in terms of wickets taken during this phase.
Their best six-over phases upfront came against Kolkata Knight Riders – five scalps in first seven overs (four in the first six) and lost only one while batting. That was the only time this season when they won a match. In T20 or white ball parlance, it’s the PowerPlay problem.
Mahela Jayawardene agreed that the PowerPlays have been a worry. “We have looked at those numbers as well. When you start the season with a new group of players, we will come across these issues. So, that is something that we will have to address. Agreed on the PowerPlays that we need to take a bit more control. Whenever we have done that, we have done that. That is something we are going to plan and see whether we can improve on that.”
That could change with the return of two key players for Monday’s game against Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the Wankhede – Jasprit Bumrah and Rohit Sharma. Bumrah has missed all four games so far, while Rohit had to sit out the last one and is eager to make his presence count. Both are more than capable of making an impact – in the PowerPlay overs, primarily.
MI will be hoping for that against a side that has shown a lot of promise despite the reversal in the result the previous game at home. With the likes of Phil Salt, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar with the bat, while Josh Hazlewood, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Suyash Sharma follow with the ball…Royal Challengers have raised the hopes of their ever so loyal fans for the season.
“It’s been a great start for us – two big wins on the road against KKR and CSK. They’ve been traditionally tough places, so that’s a brilliant start for us,” said Tim David. “The last game (versus GT at home), we lost early wickets, that happens. We’re looking forward to this game.”
