The match that was shifted from Ahmedabad to Jaipur in the eleventh hour could prove an eliminator for the team that loses. Both the teams are on the same page as they both lost to Rajasthan Royals in the same stadium that they are going to play and one of their games being washed away.

Mumbai Indians looked rusty in their only game . Nothing much can be noted in terms of batting as except for the skipper Rohit Sharma and Kieron Pollard no one looked impressive. Much was expected of Sachin as always and it happened to be one of the instances that the master batsman disappointed the fans. Along with Sachin, Dwayne Smith, Dinesh Karthik, Rayudu would like to put up an inspiring performance as the chances of IPL champions being eliminated look imminent if they lose. The situation on the bowling side does not look great either with Mitchell Johnson not being able to fill nto Mallinga’s shoes. Bhajji on the other hand was clueless in his approach to RR batsmen. The debutant Nathan Coulter – Nile showed some promise both with bat as well as the ball. If he can build on the promise he could be an interesting prospect.

Lions on the other hand have suffered the same fate of losing a matching to RR and another match to the rain gods. The lions batting looked equally bad while chasing a target of 180 odd runs. The skipper Alviro Peterson and middle order batsmen Hardus Viljeon tried to give the team a chance but were not good enough for the RR bowlers. The other batsmen namely Rassie Van Der Dussen, Quinton De Kock, Temba Bavuma and Jean Symes have not lived upto their potential. On the bowling front it will be upto Tsotsobe and Sohail Tanveer to provide early breaks especially on the seamer friendly pitch.

On Head to Head clashes the MI have nothing to take home as they lost both their matches against Lions in previous editions. Both the matches were at the Wanderers the home of the Lions. The home advantage can give MI some comfort but playing at home can always be a double edged sword.

Prediction: Highveld Lions winning in a tight contest.