Rain expected to mar Rajasthan’s search for last playoff berth:Mumbai eye to preserve their pride on home turf in season’s last match

In an interesting three-way race, one of the Punjab Kings (PBKS), Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), and Rajasthan Royals(RR), is highly favourable to be part of Qualifier 2 and battle Sunrisers Hyderabad. And RR would look to go all in when they face the Mumbai Indians (MI) at Wankhede in a ‘Super Sunday’ game, where a win would mean immediate qualification. The Mumbai Indians are struggling to maintain win consistency after their elimination from the playoffs. Also, as soon as Hardik Pandya returned fit as captain, MI suffered a loss to KKR at Eden Gardens. Meanwhile, for the Rajasthan Royals, they will aim to avoid complex qualification scenarios or dependency on other results. The last time the Royals faced Mumbai was in Guwahati, where Sooryavanshi and Jaiswal had charged at MI bowlers right away. Especially Jaiswal’s 77* off 32 balls was exemplary in a rain-curtailed contest. On a ground with not much bigger dimensions, Mumbai Paltan will eye finishing their campaign on a high, that too on their home turf. MI vs RR Match Details Match: Mumbai Indians vs Rajasthan Royals, match 69 Date: 24 May, 2026 Venue: Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai Time: 3:30 PM IST, toss at 3:00 PM How to watch: Star Sports network (Telecasting), JioHotstar (Streaming) Where to follow: Follow live updates from the match on the Bhaskar English app. MI vs RR, head-to-head record Rajasthan Royals have some catching up to do as well with the Mumbai Indians on Sunday, as MI have an advantage on paper in terms of head-to-head record between the two teams. In the 32 games that both teams have faced each other, MI have emerged victorious 16 times while the Royals have trailed five-time champions with 15 wins. Ryan Rickelton and Allah Ghazanfar are keeping MI’s pride alive Despite playing just 11 games out of the total 13 that the Mumbai Indians have played in IPL 2026, Ryan Rickelton leads the run-scoring charts for the franchise. He has scored 436 runs in 11 matches, with his highest score this year being 123 not out. Meanwhile, Allah Ghazanfar is the leading wicket-taker for the MI Paltan with 14 wickets in 10 matches. However, one of the reasons that Ghazanfar hasn’t played all games for MI is due to his high economy, which stands at 9.60. Royals will need Sooryavanshi and Archer’s full strength to shatter MI’s fort The 15-year-old ‘wonder boy’ continues to surprise the fans and terrorise opponents with his bashy style of batting. With that horrifying bat swing, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has scored 579 runs in 13 matches while maintaining an average of 236.32. His highest score this year is 103. Meanwhile, Archer, with the new ball, has been lethal this season as he has taken 18 wickets in 13 games. On some occasions, he also got hit brutally, and that’s why his economy is 9.14 despite his best performance in the 19th edition of IPL being 3/20. Can Archer crack open MI’s opening pillar, Rohit Sharma? On a high-scoring ground, Jofra Archer has his chances with the new ball, and he’ll look to castle Rohit Sharma. Both of them have engaged in a player battle for just 12 balls. However, in such a short number of deliveries, Archer has managed to dismiss Rohit twice. Moreover, in terms of the strike rate, Rohit struggles to get off his mark against the RR pacer. That’s why the MI opener has a feeble strike rate of 91.61 against Archer. Can struggling Bumrah end IPL 2026 campaign on a high? Jasprit Bumrah has struggled with his form with the ball in this year’s IPL. One of the premium fast bowlers in the world, Bumrah, will look forward to bowling to Yashasvi Jaiswal. The RR opener doesn’t command a consistent form for a while, and Mumbai seamer can capitalise on it. In terms of past meetings between Bumrah and Jaiswal, the latter has scored 29 runs in 22 balls, giving his wicket away just once while scoring at a strike rate of 131.81. Wankhede Stadium, pitch report Apart from the forgettable game against Chennai Super Kings in which MI got bundled out for 104 in match 33, the Mumbai Indians were involved in a high-scoring game at Wankhede. In five of those games, the score crossed the 200 threshold, except the 16 April game, in which MI were restricted to 195/6 in 20 overs. So, fans can expect a run-fest at Wankhede on Sunday afternoon. Mumbai weather report It will be a test of resilience and fitness for both teams on a potentially hot and humid Sunday afternoon. As per Accuweather, the temperature is expected to be 36° Celsius. However, during the daytime, there is 70% chance of rain, and it might even affect the contest. So it’ll be worth watching if the MI vs RR match escapes unscathed or gets marred by rain completely.