Find out team news, TV and streaming information, odds, weather forecasts and much, much more ahead of the first game of the new Indian Premier League season
Mumbai Indians take on Royal Challengers Bangalore in the opening game of the 2021 IPL.
The game is scheduled for 7.30pm IST (3pm BST) on Friday, April 9, 2021.
Chennai's Chepauk stadium will stage the game.
Mumbai Indians are the hot favourites to defend their Indian Premier League title.
The franchise have won the tournament in three of the past four seasons.
Royal Challengers Bangalore are perennial underperformers but showed signs of improvement under director of cricket Mike Hesson last season and will be aiming to make a major impression.
Dafabet have Mumbai Indians as the favourites at 4/6, with RCB available at 6/5 for the win.
A niche bet with winning potential is the Mumbai total sixes market. Over 7.5 is available at 23/20 - and with an in-form roster of powerful hitters at their disposal against an RCB attack missing two of its overseas options and Yuzvendra Chahal taking some stick in the recent India-England series, there could well be value there.
Mumbai's batsmen are 3/4 to win the powerplay battle against their RCB opponents, and that looks like good value given the fast-starting potential of Mumbai's top three.
Mumbai Indians are packed with T20 stars.
West Indian allrounder Kieron Pollard is among the most destructive players on the planet. In the last IPL, which concluded in October, Pollard ended top of the strike rate charts with a frankly baffling tournament rate of 191.42 runs per 100 balls. He hit a six every seven balls on average and made 268 runs in total at an average of 53.60.
In Pollard and Hardik Pandya, Mumbai have the two top-rated T20 players in the world according to the T20 Player Index. Pandya could feasibly become the first Indian to top the Index with a series of stand-out performances in this IPL. He proved himself to be in good form during the recent series against England, scoring 86 runs at a typically breezy strike rate of 140.98, and claiming three wickets with an economy rate of just 6.94.
Among their plethora of home-grown talents, Mumbai will be expecting major contributions from captain Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah - perhaps the best white-ball seamer in the world, and the exciting young top order pair of Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan.
RCB have spent big on a small chunk of leading players. Virat Kohli leads the team, with one of the greatest batsmen in white-ball cricket history AB de Villiers expected to deliver alongside him.
It will be intriguing to see how Kyle Jamieson, bought for 15crore at auction, goes in his first IPL. That's a lot of money to spend on one unproven individual if things don't quite go right.
Mumbai may be without Quinton de Kock. The South African wicketkeeper-batsman has to go through a quarantine period after arriving in India.
RCB will be missing Adam Zampa. The Australian legspinner is getting married and will not be arriving in India until later in the tournament.
Daniel Sams tested positive for Covid-19 and is in isolation. He is asymptomatic but will not be available according to the competition's coronavirus protocols.
Finn Allen will not be available to RCB as he is in quarantine following his arrival from New Zealand.
The two teams have played each other 29 times.
Mumbai Indians wins: 19
Royal Challengers Bangalore wins: 10
Temperatures of around 31 Celsius with the humidity in the 60s. There is little chance of rain interruptions.
No, this match will be played behind closed doors owing to the Covid-19 situation in India.
As so often is the case in games on the subcontinent, the toss is likely to play a major factor. The average first-innings total of 146 from 2019 at the Chepauk will simply not be enough. Mumbai have the top order to challenge RCB if they have to bat first.
IPL TEAM GUIDES
Sky Sports have the rights in the United Kingdom.
You can aso stream the tournament using the Disney+ Hotstar digital platform, though the matches are only available for VIP or Premium subscribers.
Star Sports have the television rights in India.
Streaming service YuppTV have acquired digital streaming rights in a host of markets, including Australia, continental Europe, Malaysia, Southeast Asia with the exception of Singapore, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, the Maldives, Central Asia, and Central and South America.
In the USA, the games will be broadcast on Willow TV and the Willow TV website. Fox Sports have the broadcasting rights in Australia, while Supersport will televise the games in South Africa. In the Caribbean, Flow TV have the rights.
The following broadcasters owning the rights for their respective regions:
Bangladesh: Channel 9
Afghanistan: Lemar TV
Malaysia: Measat
MENA/UAE: BeIN Sport
Hong Kong: Now TV
Singapore: SingTel
New Zealand: Sky Sport
Papua New Guinea: EMTV
Mumbai Indian squad: Rohit Sharma, Aditya Tare, Anmolpreet Singh, Anukul Roy, Dhawal Kulkarni, Hardik Pandya, Ishan Kishan, Jasprit Bumrah, Jayant Yadav, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Quinton de Kock, Rahul Chahar, Suryakumar Yadav, Chris Lynn, Mohsin Khan, Saurabh Tiwary, Trent Boult, Adam Milne, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Piyush Chawla, James Neeshan, Yudhvir Charak, Marco Jansen, Arjun Tendulkar
RCB squad: Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Yuzvendra Chahal, Devdutt Padikkal, Harshal Patel, Daniel Sams, Washington Sundar, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Adam Zampa, Shahbaz Ahmed, Kane Richardson, Pavan Deshpande, Glenn Maxwell, Sachin Baby, Rajat Patidar, Mohammed Azharuddeen, Kyle Jamieson, Dan Christian, Suyesh Prabhudessai, KS Bharat, Finn Allen
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Chris Lynn, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Piyush Chawla, Rahul Chahar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah
RCB: Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Glenn Maxwell, Mohammad Azharuddeen, Sachin Baby, Dan Christian, Washington Sundar, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kyle Jamieson
Our coverage of the IPL is brought to you in association with Dafabet India. For more on Dafabet and to place a bet, click here
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