The Sawai Mansingh stadium audience had a bittersweet taste on the wick of Sachin Tendulkar. When Ashok Menaria got the little champion stumped, the Shane Warne-Sachin Tendulkar duel was all but over in the IPL-4 match here on Friday.
Rajasthan go into this clash with the same team, whereas Abu Nechim has been replaced by Ali Murtaza for the Mumbai Indians.
Mumbai Indians, who are tagged as hot favourites for this edition of the Indian Premier League, have been able to live up to their reputation by winning all but one of their six matches in the tournament.
The Rajasthan Royals, on the other hand, have had a roller-coaster ride so far. Out of seven they have played, they won three and lost as many, while one match got abandoned due to rain.
Struggling to regain form after losing three games on a trot, Rajasthan Royals, however, managed to notch up a fine victory against the in-form Kochi Tuskers Kerala in their previous match with Warne leading from the front with a three-wicket haul on the home turf.
On Friday they would once again rely on Warne's magic to do the trick for them and expect Shaun Tait, Siddharth Trivedi and Shane Watson to back their skipper with the ball. In fact, the Royals have mainly achieved their victories in this edition of the IPL by restricting the opponents and chasing down modest targets.
And it is high time that their batting line-up that boasts of Watson, Rahul Dravid, Ross Taylor, Ashok Maneria, fire together and make an impact. Although, the batsmen have shown some firepower but they are yet to win a match for the team as a batting unit.
And if the Rajasthan team wants to put it across the strong Mumbai Indians tomorrow, the batsmen will have to come out as a unit.
