IPL 2021: Match 1, MI vs RCB - Stats Preview: Player records and approaching milestones

The 14th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is all set to get underway from Friday 9th April 2021. The first game of this edition will be played between defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai.

MI were the table-toppers last season winning 9 of the 14 league games and would want to continue that brilliant performance this year as well. On the other hand, RCB started well but their wheels fell off dramatically towards the second half. They lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad in the eliminator game which brought an end to their season campaign. RCB would want to make a fresh start in IPL 2021 with a victory in the first game.

Let’s look at all the important stats and numbers ahead of the first game of IPL 2021:

Head to Head: Both teams have met in 27 IPL games so far, and Mumbai Indians have won 17 of these, while RCB emerged victorious in rest of the 10 matches.

2013 – Since 2013, Mumbai Indians have lost all their first games of the season. Their 8 consecutive losses in the initial games have been quite fascinating given they have bounced back strongly in most of the cases.

3 – RCB have been part of season openers three times before this year, and they have lost it all three times. It would be interesting to see who among MI and RCB can counter their previous record.

5 – RCB have lost their last 5 games they played in IPL 2020. Their longest losing streak is of 7 games that occurred in 2018 and 2019.

213 – MI captain Rohit Sharma has smashed 213 sixes in IPL so far and is only behind MS Dhoni (216) among Indian players. The dashing opener will reach the top spot in this tally if he hits 4 sixes against RCB.

99 – Yuzvendra Chahal has featured in 99 IPL matches so far and will be playing his 100th IPL game against Mumbai Indians in the season opener.

22 – AB de Villiers has been an integral part of the RCB batting lineup and he has won the player of the match award 22 times. If he wins the award in the first game, he will attain the joint top spot in this regard along with Chris Gayle (23).

1959 – Mumbai Indians opener Quinton de Kock has accumulated 1959 runs in his IPL career. He requires 41 more runs to complete 2000 IPL runs, and become the fourth Proteas player after AB de Villiers, Faf du Plessis and JP Duminy to reach the landmark.

187.68 – RCB have included Kiwi opener, Finn Allen as a replacement for Josh Philippe. His strike rate of 187.68 in T20 cricket is the highest for any player with a minimum of 500 runs scored.

145.6 – Chris Lynn might open for Mumbai Indians in the first game of the season. The Aussie opener’s strike rate of 145.6 in the powerplay is the third highest in IPL history with a minimum of 500 runs scored.

737 – RCB opener Devdutt Padikkal had a great season in Vijay Hazare Trophy this year. He smashed 737 runs in 7 innings at an incredible average of 147.40 in the domestic tournament.

159.6 – RCB struggled with a low scoring rate in the middle overs (8-15) in IPL 2020. To counter this problem, they have included Glenn Maxwell, whose strike rate of 159.6 in middle overs is the third-highest in IPL history with a minimum of 300 runs scored in this phase.

159.26 – Hardik Pandya has scored 1349 runs in IPL at a strike rate of 159.26. This is the highest strike rate for any Indian in the tournament history.

9.8 – Kyle Jamieson was bought by RCB at a massive price of 15 crore INR in the mini-auction. However, his record in T20Is is not great. The Kiwi bowler has bowled at an economy of 9.8 in T20Is and has picked up only 4 wickets in 8 games so far.

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