🏏IPL 2023: Match 69 - MI vs SRH on 21/05/2023 at 3:30 PM IST 🏏

🏏IPL 2023: Match 69 - MI vs SRH at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on 21/05/2023 at 3:30 PM IST 🏏

Tag & Logo Credit: Sevenstreaks

Mumbai Indians return to their fortress for a must-win match against Sunrisers

They need two points to get ahead of RCB, and then they must await the result of the final league game

Mumbai gunning for final playoff spot

Mumbai Indians slipped up in their previous match in Lucknow and face a crunch game against Sunrisers Hyderabad to make a late dash into the playoffs. The good news for them is that they are back at home for their last league game, and the Wankhede has been a fortress for them this season.

They have won four out of six home matches so far, chasing down totals of 186, 213 and 200. Should they beat Sunrisers on Sunday afternoon, they will finish this season with their best record at the Wankhede. Mumbai's batters - and Suryakumar Yadav in particular - have been awesome at home, and Mumbai will bank on them against the bottom-placed Sunrisers.

Mumbai must win to have a hope of finishing in the top four, and even then they will need Gujarat Titans to do them a favour and beat Royal Challengers Bangalore later on Sunday evening. If net run-rate come into the picture, Mumbai might struggle to make it, unless they beat Sunrisers by a huge margin.

Sunrisers were the second team to be eliminated from contention for the playoffs, and need a win to try and avoid finishing last this season. When these two teams met earlier this season, Mumbai won by 14 runs.

Mumbai Indians vs Sunrisers Hyderabad Pitch Report

The pitch at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai is a nightmare for the bowlers as the run-scoring is easy at this venue. The batters can trust the pace and bounce of the pitch as the ball comes nicely onto the bat. The bowlers need to be very precise with their lines and lengths.

Mumbai Indians vs Sunrisers Hyderabad Weather Forecast

The temperature in Mumbai on Sunday is expected to range between 28 and 34 degrees Celsius.

Recent results - (Last five matches, most recent first)

Mumbai Indians: LWWLW

Sunrisers Hyderabad: LLLWL

Team news: Tilak Varma still doubtful

Tilak Varma has missed Mumbai's last four matches with injury and faces a fitness test on the eve of the game. Sunrisers should have all players available for selection.

SRH vs MI Head-to-Head

In the 20 meetings between the two sides in IPL so far, MI hold a slight edge having won 11 matches, while SRH has won 9 times. In the last six meetings also it's 4-2 in favour of MI when it comes to matches between Sunrisers and Mumbai in IPL.

Impact player strategy

Mumbai Indians

Vishnu Vinod is likely to start if Mumbai are batting first, or come on as the Impact Player to replace Akash Madhwal if they bowl first. However, if Varma is fit, he could play instead of Vinod.

Mumbai Indians (Probable XII) 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Ishan Kishan (wk), 3 Suryakumar Yadav, 4 Nehal Wadhera, 5 Tim David, 6 Vishnu Vinod, 7 Cameron Green, 8 Chris Jordan, 9 Hrithik Shokeen/Kumar Kartikeya, 10 Piyush Chawla, 11 Jason Behrendorff, 12 Akash Madhwal

Sunrisers Hyderabad

Sunrisers might stick with the same team that played against RCB. T Natarajan will start and be subbed off for a batter if they bowl first, and vice versa. However, it remains to be seen if Umran Malik returns; he could come in place of Nitish Kumar Reddy.

Sunrisers Hyderabad (Probable XII) 1 Abhishek Sharma, 2 Rahul Tripathi, 3 Aiden Markram (capt), 4 Heinrich Klaasen (wk), 5 Harry Brook, 6 Glenn Phillips, 7 Abdul Samad, 8 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 9 Kartik Tyagi, 10 Mayank Dagar, 11 Nitish Kumar Reddy/Umran Malik, 12 T Natarajan

Stats that matter

• Tim David, Mumbai's finisher, has an excellent record against Natarajan, who is one of Sunrisers' death-overs specialists. David has faced 16 deliveries from Natarajan in two games, and hit him for 47 runs without being dismissed.
• Sunrisers have won just two of their 11 games at Wankhede.
• The match could turn out to be a six-fest. The 124 sixes hit at Wankhede so far is the most at any venue this season.

Quotes

"It's just another game for us. Yes from outside it looks like it's a big game and we have to wait for other results, et cetera, but we know what we have been doing here at Wankhede in the last four-five games. So we know our strengths. So we will back that and focus on that."

Suryakumar Yadav is confident going into Mumbai Indians' final home game.

Team Watch:

Mumbai Indians

MI would be fretting over the availability of Tilak Varma, one of the more successful batters for them in the season, who last played against Punjab Kings on May 3. One between Nehal Wadhera and Vishnu Vinod could make way.

Tactics & matchups: Unleashing a left-arm spinner against Suryakumar would be an option for SRH. Since 2019, Suryakumar strikes against left-arm orthodox spin at only 102 and SRH have Abhishek Sharma and Mayank Dagar in their ranks for this matchup.

Probable XI: Ishan Kishan(w), Rohit Sharma(c), Cameron Green, Suryakumar Yadav, Nehal Wadhera/Tilak Varma, Tim David, Chris Jordan, Vishnu Vinod, Piyush Chawla, Jason Behrendorff, Kumar Kartikeya

SunRisers Hyderabad

On the eve of the game, coach Lara was all praise for Umran Malik and declared that he is fit. The J&K pacer may get a look-in.

Tactics & matchups: Heinrich Klaasen will once again be key against spin in the middle overs. This season, he has scored 260 runs against spin at an average of 130 and a strike-rate of 194. His battle with Piyush Chawla, who has the most wickets between overs 7-15, will be the one to watch out for.

Probable XI: Abhishek Sharma, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram(c), Heinrich Klaasen(w), Harry Brook, Glenn Phillips, Abdul Samad, Kartik Tyagi,/Umran Malik Mayank Dagar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Nitish Reddy

What they said

Absolutely, we have the advantage because having a home game is always better irrespective of the team we play against. This is our last league game and whenever you think about it, you always think it would be better to end the league round with a home game. The support will be good obviously. It will be hot tomorrow but it will be fun. - Suryakumar Yadav, MI batter

This game tomorrow and the previous game, you want to see players come out, so we are relaxed in our selection policy and still put a team out on park that will compete. I don't think we shuffled too much unnecessarily. We played the best 12 that we could find. We have to learn from and it's not a great idea to think about what went wrong. - Brian Lara, SRH coach

Did you know?

- Suryakumar and Klaasen are the top two run-getters at No.3 or below this season.

- Tim David has a strike-rate of 221.57 in nine games at the Wankhede.