The Mumbai Indians will play the Royal Challengers Bengaluru in match no. 15 of the Airtel Champions League, which is a must win contest for both of them.

The Mumbai Indians find themselves in a more precarious position than the Royal Challengers. They have to win the game to even stay in the competition. They lost their first two games against the Highveld Lions and the South Australia Redbacks but gave themselves a chance by winning the game against Guyana.

The group is evenly poised as three teams compete for one place in the semi finals. The Redbacks have already qualified for the semis by winning all their four games. The Mumbai Indians have just the one game while the Lions and the Bangalore Royal Challengers have two games on hand.

The sides have met each other many times and for the first time in the tournament, there is a touch of familiarity is on the cards when two sides meet. Mumbai rely on their batting while the Royal Challengers are one of the best bowling sides in the tournament.

The Royal Challengers easily dispatched Guyana in their first game but lost to the Redbacks in their next game. Jacques Kallis, who is an integral part of the side, missed out due to a sore back and this damaged the balance of the side. However, his replacement, Dillon Dupreez did not do badly with the bat, scoring a quick fire 46. It was the bowling that let them down, with all the bowlers turning out to be expensive.

For, Mumbai, bowling seems to be a big problem. The option of Kieron Pollard as a fifth bowler has not worked as he has been expensive in the tournament. Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan too, have not bowled well in the tournament, with Harbhajan being played with relative ease. They need a disciplined bowling performance, if they want to contain the Royal Challengers who have a few big hitters in Ross Taylor, Cameron White and Robin Uthappa. The Mumbai Indians' fielding too has not been up to scratch so far. They dropped so many catches against South Australia and the ground fielding too left much to be desired.

Their batting has been good so far in almost all their games. Sachin Tendulkar has looked in good knick and Kieron Pollard too has been able to hit the ball a fair distance in the end of the innings. Mumbai Indians will be looking to him to get them to a big score against RCB, just like he did against Guyana.

Tag :- Bangalore royal Challengers   Jacques Kallis   Kieron Pollard   Mumbai Indians   Sachin Tendulkar