Three safe and sound bets that could land you a lottery from Mumbai’s clash against Rajasthan

Mumbai Indians to score under 46.5 runs in the powerplay @1.86

Mumbai Indians have had a scratchy season, with just two wins and three losses, all of it coming on the slow and tough surface in Chennai. While Mumbai were happy to move away from Chennai, they would have another slow surface in the form of Delhi, which would certainly hurt their powerplay score, yet again. Thus far, this season, the franchise have had scores of 41, 42, 53, 55 and 21 in the powerplay. But more importantly, the fall in form of South African Quinton de Kock certainly comes at the wrong time for the franchise, who are aiming to get their sixth title this season. Not just that, Mumbai are on the back of their fourth-worst powerplay total in the IPL history, with 21 runs in six overs against Punjab Kings. While Rajasthan might be depleted with resources, their bowling in the powerplay will turn out to be the deciding factor in this market. Couple that with Rohit Sharma’s sticky form, where the runs have come at a slower rate, Mumbai are well going to score under 46.5 runs in the powerplay against Rajasthan. So just go on, live your life to the fullest. 

Let’s cut the slack, Rajasthan have been the unluckiest side in the competition this year but that shouldn’t really come in way of this market. In fact, they have also had the worst opening pair in the past, so why really are we going with this market? Jos Buttler. Only two franchises in the history of the competition - Punjab Kings and Mumbai Indians - have not dismissed the Englishman during the powerplay stage. Against Mumbai, Buttler has scored 55 powerplay runs, striking it at 119.6, with 21 being his highest runs. Now let’s move on to the market, Rajasthan Royals opening pair have struggled in the past but the recent pair - Yashasvi Jaiswal and Buttler - began things on a brighter note for the franchise. Chasing a low target of 134, on a tricky surface, the opening pair sailed the win to score 21 runs for the first wicket. This is where it gets interesting, Mumbai Indians have only picked three wickets in the powerplay this season, with two coming in the opening game against RCB and the other one, coming against Delhi, where Prithvi Shaw was dismissed. Last year’s strength has turned into a weakness for Mumbai, which means that Rajasthan scoring 22.5 runs for the first wicket is a vivid possibility.

Here we are again, dissing the Mumbai Indians batting order. Forget bad, they have been terrible this season, especially in the powerplay and the death overs. Neither have the openers really fired as per their standards nor has the middle-order really made any sort of impact in the death overs. That’s where this bet gets its steam from, the fact that Mumbai Indians have been a very bad batting side. Across their last five games, not once have Mumbai crossed the 160 mark in this year’s competition. Forget that, on average, Mumbai have scored just 145.8 runs on slower surfaces in Chennai. Now in comparison, the conditions in Delhi are expected to be on the slower side, which makes this bet an enticing one. That’s just one half of it really, in MI’s last three games, they have scores of 131, 137 and 150, which really shows how much they have been struggling. On the other hand, Rajasthan’s bowling attack has picked up a crazy kind of form in the season. In their last clash, they restricted KKR to just 133 runs, on a batting surface in Wankhede. In fact, twice this season has the Royals restricted opponents to a total of less than 150, which surely is enough to suggest that against Mumbai, they could continue their bowling excellence.