Rajasthan Royals will take on Mumbai Indians in match 44 of IPL 2022 today.

The match will be played at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.

The Sanju Samson-led RR side is placed second in the points table with six wins in 8 games and has a healthy net run rate of 0.561.

Rohit Sharma-led Mumbai Indians have endured the worst of seasons so far as the five-time champions have zero wins in eight games.

They will be playing for pride as their chances of making the play-offs have already evaporated.

Fact is, Mumbai Indians started the tournament on a bad note and things just kept on getting worse.

In the season opener, Delhi Capitals beat them by 6 wickets in their opening game.

They were off to a decent start, however, Lalit Yadav and Axar Patel put on some excellent display of batting and helped DC cross the finish line.

This was a blow from which MI never recovered.

Rajasthan Royals, on the other hand, started their IPL 2022 campaign with a massive victory by outplaying SunRisers Hyderabad by a margin of 61 runs.

Head to Head record

The two teams have played 26 matches against each other.

Mumbai Indians have emerged victorious on 14 occasions while Rajasthan Royals have 12 wins.

Last match form

Rajasthan Royals played their last game against Royal Challengers Bangalore where they won the game by 29 runs.

Riyan Parag smashed 56 runs while Kuldeep Sen picked up 4 wickets for Rajasthan Royals in that game.

Mumbai Indians played their last game against Lucknow Super Giants where they lost the game by 36 runs.

Rohit Sharma and Tilak Varma scored 39 runs and 38 runs respectively for Mumbai Indians in that game.

The last time they played against each other in this season, Rajasthan Royals beat Mumbai Indians by 23 runs.

DY Patil Pitch stats

• Average 1st Innings Score: 167
• Highest team score: 205/2 – RCB vs PBKS, 2022
• Lowest team score: 112/8 – PBKS vs Pune Warriors India, 2011
• The DY Patil ground offers decent bounce to the bowlers but often it stays true. So we can expect scores of at least 150+.
• The team batting second has a better record great here. They have won 61% of the matches played.

Mumbai Indians Likely 11

Rohit Sharma (c), Ishan Kishan (wk),  Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Kieron Pollard, Tim David, Daniel Sams, Murugan Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Tymal Mills, Basil Thampi

Rajasthan Royals Likely 11

Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Devdutt Padikkal, Sanju Samson (c & wk), Shimron Hetmyer, Riyan Parag, Ravichandran Ashwin, James Neesham, Yuzvendra Chahal, Trent Boult, Prasidh Krishna

Best batter of the Match

Jos Buttler is in red hot form with 3 hundreds and 2 fifties.

He has 491 runs in seven innings – almost 200 more than the next-highest.

Also, he has scored his runs at the strike rate of 161.5.

In the process, he has single-handedly scored 39% of Rajasthan Royals’ total runs which is nothing short of sensational.

He is expected to be the best batter of the match.

Best bowler of the Match

Chahal has been the defining bowler of IPL 2022.

Not only does Chahal lead with the most wickets in the tournament so far, he also owns the best bowling performance of the season.

His 5 for 40 in a high-pressure, high-scoring match against Kolkata Knight Riders gave RR the confidence that they can be champions.

Who will win

With the highest run-getter and highest wicket-taker in their ranks, RR is currently buzzing.

Sanju Samson is doing a great job as a captain and is displaying a new maturity.

The confidence of the squad is at an all-time high.

The squad is also deriving strength from the memory of the late Shane Warne and wants to achieve something big in his honour.

In contrast, MI looks down and out.

There is not even a single player who has outperformed, with bat or ball.

Hence, we think RR will emerge victors.