Champions Mumbai to hold their nerve

The reigning champions the Mumbai Indians will be looking to win their third match of this years Dream11 Indian Premier League and break away at the top of the tight table. But the Sunrisers Hyderabad will have something to say about that, as they look to continue their good form, following their narrow win on Friday night.

With great power, comes great results

When the Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma departed the pitch on Thursday with his team 124-4 with just 23 balls left, he would have been slightly concerned that they wouldn’t have enough runs on the board to get over the line against Kings XI Punjab. But a remarkable 67 runs were added from T20 specialist Kieron Pollard (47* from 20) and Hardik Pandya (30* from 11) to set Kings XI a hugely competitive 192 to win. The explosive middle order has helped to boost Mumbai’s scores as high as possible to help take the pressure of their bowlers so far this year. Pollard currently boasts the highest strike rate in this year’s competition, a mind boggling 212.30.

Whilst many of the Mumbai batsmen look like being in good form, and have shown moments of brilliance so far, wicket-keeper and opening batsman Quinton de Kock has struggled to hit the ground running. Just 48 runs to date and apart from the 33 in the opening match against CSK, the South African hasn’t looked comfortable at the top of the order. He is the only missing piece in the jigsaw with the bat for the Mumbai Indians with Sharma, Kishan, Pollard, Pandya and Yadav all looking in good nick.

Hot and cold Sunrisers

It’s been a real mixed bag for the Sunrisers Hyderabad this year, with them struggling to set the world alight with some lacklustre cricket at times. The opening pair of Jonny Bairstow and David Warner have really struggled to hit their best form which has at times exposed their young and inexperienced middle order. This for me is the main difference between these two sides.

Despite the lack of runs at the top of the order, both Priyam Garg (51*) who hit his maiden IPL half century and Abhishek Sharma (31) dug the Sunrisers out of a hole at 69-4 to set CSK 165 to win last time out. With the ball, the Sunrisers did the business and left CSK needing 86 from the final five overs. They let them get closer to the target than they would have liked but captain Warner will be happy with two more points in the bag. He will be hoping that Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s injury that took him off the pitch at the end of the match isn’t too serious, and will be back in time for Sunday night.

Match Tip

The lack of form from the experienced oversees stars at the top for the Sunrisers concerns me, especially when they are playing a team as destructive as the Mumbai Indians and this is why I think the Sunrisers will struggle in this one.

I am backing the Mumbai Indians to hit more fours than the Sunrisers Hyderabad at 2.00 with 888sport.

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