Do or die for Mumbai Indians against Royal Challengers
 
Port Elizabeth, May 9

Mumbai Indians will look to avenge its nine-wicket loss to Bangalore Royal Challengers when they meet them for the second time in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) here Saturday. Mumbai Indians are in a must-win situation in the race to the four semi-final spots. Mumbai Indians, who are languishing at the seventh spot with seven points, need to recover from their three-match losing streak to keep their hopes alive.

Royal Challengers on the other hand after initial hiccups are at the fifth position with eight points. The change of skipper from Kevin Pietersen to Anil Kumble has done the side good and they are brimming with confidence.

For Mumbai Indians, their experiment of opening the innings with Luke Ronchi and Jean Paul Duminy badly backfired in their clash with Delhi Daredevils Friday and skipper Sachin Tendulkar is aware that dropping Sanath Jayasuriya has proved to be a costly move. The fundamental problem of the Mumbai team has been that many of their top batsmen have failed to click and Tendulkar has already declared that they need to put up a good total to see a win. Their bowling and fielding have been impressive but the team is yet to gel as a unit. The road for the Mumbai team, that started as the favourites in this edition, only becomes tougher from here. 

A resurgent Royal Challengers' skipper Anil Kumble has already declared that they will approach every game as the final. "We have done well against Mumbai Indians. We would like to take that kind of confidence. But every game is a different. We will have to adapt to the conditions and try and force a win. I think the last few games show we are still in the race. So we would like to look at it in that sense and approach every game as a final," Kumble said.

For Royal Challengers, Jacques Kallis remains the best bet and with 230 runs is the highest run getter for the team. The presence of Rahul Dravid, Mark Boucher, Robin Uthappa and Roelof van der Merwe ensures the team has enough options in batting. Kumble with 10 wickets leads the bowling attack that has young talents in Praveen Kumar and Dale Steyn.