MI look to seal playoff berth when they face Royals

Mumbai Indians will be looking to seal a playoffs berth and iron out minor flaws for the bigger battles ahead, while the Rajasthan Royals will play for pride when the two sides take on each other in their last league encounter of the IPL in Jaipur on Sunday.

Rajasthan Royals, who have not been consistent enough, bowed out of contention for the playoffs after a humiliating five wicket defeat against Deccan Chargers in Hyderabad.

They must be ruing their close defeats against Delhi Daredevils and Chennai Super Kings but are left with no other option but to play for pride against the formidable Mumbai Indians.

Skipper Rahul Dravid has already proved that he is not a spent force and that too in the shorter version of the game which has never been his forte. He, along with Australian Shane Watson, Shaun Tait, Ajinkya Rahane and others would like to prove a point with better performances.

Mumbai are placed third with 18 points from 15 matches and Royal Challengers Bangalore have 17 points from 15 matches and they take on the lowly Deccan Chargers on Sunday in a day match.

It will be a must-win situation for the visitors if RCB too wins.

Mumbai Indians have a strong side featuring the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Rohit Sharma, South African Herschelle Gibbs, West Indian Kieron Pollard and Ambati Rayudu.

Rohit is in good nick with a hundred under his belt but Tendulkar is yet to play a big knock in the competition.

The bowling also has a lethal look with Sri Lankan Lasith Malinga at the helm and sharing the top spot with 21 wickets with Sunil Narine and Morne Morkel.

R P Singh too produced a good spell against Kolkata Knight Riders but it was Narine who settled the issue in favour of Mumbai.

Skipper Harbhajan Singh has been struggling for form but there is hope he might bounce back. Pollard has been successful in picking up a few wickets so the visitors need not worry much.

The Pink City has been witnessing sand storms and slight showers this week but still the wicket at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium is pretty good for batting and will provide a perfect platform for big guns like Tendulkar, Rohit, Pollard and Rayudu.

The teams (from):

Mumbai Indians: Harbhajan Singh (C), Sachin Tendulkar, Abu Nechim, Amitize Singh, Aiden Blizzard, James Franklin, Kieron Pollard, Y Chahal, Herschelle Gibbs, Davy Jacobs, Richard Levi, Dinesh Kartik, Dhawal Kulkarni, K Yadav, Lasith Malinga, Sushant Marathe, Pragyan Ojha, Munaf Patel, Robin Peterson, Sujit Nayak, Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Jaydev Shah, Rudra Pratap Singh, T Suman, Pawan Suyal, Aditya Tare, Apporva Wankhede.

Rajasthan Royals: Rahul Dravid (C), Aakash Chopra, Abhishek Raut, Aditya Dole, Ajinkya Rahane, Ajit Chandela, Amit Paunikar, Amit Singh, Ankit Chavan, Ashok Meneria, Deepak Chakar, Dishant Yagnik, Faiz Fazal, Gajendra Singh, Pankaj Singh, S Sreesanth, Samad Fallah, Sidharth Trivedi, Stuart Binny, Shreevats Goswami, Sumit Narwal, Brad Hodge, Brad Hogg, Dinesh Chandimal, Johan Botha, Kevon Cooper, Owais Shah, Paul Collingwood, Shaun Tait.