Mumbai Indians Take on Rajasthan Royals; Tendulkar Elects to Bat First
Mumbai Indians captain Sachin Tendulkar has chosen to bat first against Rajasthan Royals in their league match of third edition of IPL being played at Brabourne Stadium, reported Times of India.
It may be mentioned that this is the ground where Tendulkar demolished Shane Warne in three-day match against Ranji champs Mumbai and later scored 12 international hundreds (9 ODI tons and 3 Test tons) in 1998.
He recently got his first-class double ton in ODI, 204 not out (192 balls, 25×4, 2×6) to destroy the leg-spinner and his reputation.
In the opening season the two teams won their respective home matches comfortably, Tendulkar missing the first tie because of injury and then playing the second at Jaipur but ending on the losing side.
In 2009, when the IPL tent shifted to South Africa, the first match was washed out due to rains while Warne and co eked out a thrilling two-run win in the second leg at Durban.
Both teams would be missing some key players with the Royals set to miss Ravindra Jadeja, their top scorer in the land of the Proteas with 295 runs and a strike rate of over 100, whose left arm spin bowling would also be missed.
Teams (From):
Mumbai Indians: Sachin Tendulkar (Capt), Murtaza Ali, Shikhar, Duminy, Harbhajan, Jayasuriya, Zaheer, Dhawal, Ryan McLaren, Chandan Madan, Ishan Malhotra, Malinga, Napier, Nayar, Rayudu, Rajagopal Sathish, Syed Shahabuddin, Rahul Shukla, Aditya Tare, Saurabh Tiwary.
Rajasthan Royals: Warne (Capt), Asnodkar, Botha, Fazal, Jhunjhunwala, Kamran, Michael Lumb, Martyn, Mascarenhas, Morne Morkel, Sumit Narwal, Naman Ojha, Munaf, Yusuf, Amit Paunikar, Syed Quadri, Abhishek Raut, Amit Singh, G Smith, Tait, Siddharth Trivedi, Shrikant Wagh.
