NEW DELHI: When the two teams play in Mumbai on Monday, a self-assured Sunrisers Hyderabad will want to put on a commanding display against a weak Mumbai Indians team and climb up the Indian Premier League points table.
SRH, who are now ranked fourth in the IPL standings with 12 points from 10 games-six wins and four losses-will be under pressure to perform well overall and improve, particularly in the bowling department.
The Pat Cummins-led side is in the midst of an intense battle between multiple teams who are bidding for spots in the final four, with Rajasthan Royals (16 points), Kolkata Knight Riders (14 points) and Lucknow Super Giants (12 points) placed above SRH.
Chennai Super Kings (5th with 10 points) and a resurgent Delhi Capitals (6th with 10 points) are breathing down SRH's neck, a scenario that would force the 2016 winners to shrug off any rust and get ready for an intense mid-table battle.
If a two-paced pitch at the Wankhede Stadium for the previous clash against KKR was an aberration, the free-flowing SRH batters would look to make merry and pile up a huge score as they have done several times this year.
The pitches here generally are batting-friendly and short boundary lengths at this venue make scores in excess of 200 a norm, but the MI-KKR contest played out on a sluggish surface last Friday challenged the batters to dig deep.
Having defeated RR by just one run in their most recent match-a match in which their bowlers produced an exciting victory-SRH would be feeling quite confident.
The SRH batting enforcers are still Travis Head (396 runs), Abhishek Sharma (315), and Heinrich Klaasen (337), but South African Aiden Markram, who has had a mixed run so far, would be eager to produce a huge score of his own.
Nitish Kumar Reddy (219 runs) has emerged as one of the most promising players for SRH in last few games which takes a significant amount of pressure off the key batters.
T Natarajan's (15 wickets) accuracy would be handy for SRH as the left-arm pacer is chasing Mumbai Indians' Jasprit Bumrah (17) for the purple cap.
Five-time winners Mumbai slipped to the bottom of the pool again when Royal Challengers Bengaluru trumped Gujarat Titans on Saturday night.
With only three wins in 11 matches, MI's challenge is all but over and there is only "pride and name" left to play for by their own admission.
However, all is not lost as MI's key India players for the upcoming T20 World Cup, Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya would remain in focus for their individual form.
While Suryakumar, the top-ranked T20 batsman in the world, is likely aiming for consistency following a fantastic half-century against KKR a few nights ago, Rohit's all-out aggressive style has not produced many huge scores.
Due to his mediocre performance with the bat and ball as well as his decisions made on the field while serving as MI captain, India vice-captain Pandya has been the target of criticism on a regular basis.
But the all-rounder is eager to make apologies and stop the criticism he has been receiving since the start of this IPL season.
Teams (from):
Mumbai Indians: Hardik Pandya (c), Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Dewald Brevis, Jasprit Bumrah, Piyush Chawla, Gerald Coetzee, Tim David, Shreyas Gopal, Ishan Kishan (wk), Anshul Kamboj, Kumar Kartikeya, Akash Madhwal, Kwena Maphaka, Mohammad Nabi, Shams Mulani, Naman Dhir, Shivalik Sharma, Romario Shepherd, Arjun Tendulkar, Nuwan Thushara, Tilak Varma, Harvik Desai (wk), Nehal Wadhera, Luke Wood
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Aiden Markram, Abdul Samad, Nitish Reddy, Shahbaz Ahmed, Pat Cummins (c), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat, T Natarajan, Mayank Markande, Umran Malik, Anmolpreet Singh, Glenn Phillips (wk), Rahul Tripathi, Washington Sundar, Upendra Yadav (wk), Jhathavedh Subramanyan, Sanvir Singh, Vijayakanth Viyaskanth, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Marco Jansen, Akash Maharaj Singh, Mayank Agarwal
(With PTI inputs)
