Mumbai Indians opt to bowl against Rajasthan Royals in a do or die clash against Rajasthan Royals. Both teams made two changes each. For MI, Quinton de Kock and Krunal Pandya made way for Jimmy Neesham and Ishan Kishan. On the other hand, Samson included Kuldip Yadava and Shreyas Gopal in Akash Singh and Mayank Markande's stead. Mumbai Indians has lost 3 out of the 5 IPL matches played at Sharjah.
The pitch which is being used on two previous occasions, both times the team batting second has won. First one was the RCB-CSK game where 156 was chased and then recently the DC vs MI game. The surface has got a bit of sheen, not the old Sharjah sheen. Rajasthan won't be out technically if they lose today but they'll consider this as a must-win encounter as they have a poor NRR. Rajasthan Royals were struggling and looked like they'd be joining SRH in missing out on the play-off spot. They had lost three in a row, made as many as five changes to their playing XI facing off against an in-form team and had conceded 189. The odds were heavily stacked against them but two left-handed batters - Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shivam Dube - played fearless cricket and hunted down a big total comfortably.
