What

The Gujarat Lions and Mumbai Indians will come up against each other in Match 35 of VIVO IPL 2017.

The Gujarat Lions have three wins from eight matches – the most-recent of them against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Thursday night. The Lions had a largely forgettable first half of the tournament – winning just two of their first seven matches. But if they want to be contenders for one of the playoff spots, now is the time for the Lions to start stitching together a series of wins. The bowling department has been the team’s Achilles heel, but in the previous match against RCB, the bowlers did exceptionally well to restrict a formidable RCB line-up to 134. Captain Suresh Raina expressed satisfaction that the team appeared to have found a combination that could compete; “We have a lot of match-winners in our team, starting from [Brendon] McCullum, Dwayne Smith, Ishan Kishan, Dinesh Karthik, [Ravindra] Jadeja, [Aaron] Finch and myself. We have that balance in our team and today was a result of that combination that we have been searching for,” he had said after the win against RCB.

The Mumbai Indians were on a roll before they were halted in pursuit of their 7th consecutive win by Rising Pune Supergiant. MI have had a 4-day break since that defeat in the Maharashtra Derby, and will look to retain their place in the top two.

When

29 April 2017, 2000 Hrs IST

Where

SCA Stadium, Rajkot

The Protagonists

Brendon McCullum, captain Suresh Raina and Aaron Finch – who recently demolished the RCB bowlers – will be central to the Gujarat Lions’ batting plans. Nitish Rana is the Mumbai Indians’ highest run-getter; the left-hander – dismissed for single-digit scores in his last two innings – will be keen to get back among the runs. MI will also be delighted that Rohit Sharma has found form; after a slow start to the tournament, the MI captain struck a fluent 58 in the previous match against RPS.

Match within the match

Harbhajan Singh bowling to Suresh Raina promises to make for an interesting contest. The MI off-spinner has dismissed the Gujarat Lions captain on 5 occasions – more than any other bowler. Against left-hand batsmen, Harbhajan has been extremely stingy this season, conceding runs at an economy rate of 5.40 runs per over.

Head to Head

Overall: Matches played – 3, Gujarat Lions Won – 2, Mumbai Indians Won – 1.

When the two teams met at the Wankhede Stadium earlier this season, the Mumbai Indians recovered from 0-1 to chase down 177 in the last over. Nitish Rana top-scored in the run-chase, making 53 from 36 balls. Earlier in the match, the Lions posted 176-4 riding on Brendon McCullum’s 64 and Dinesh Karthik’s 26-ball 48*.

Trivia

Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina have been extremely lucky at the coin toss; while Rohit has won 6 tosses in eight matches, Raina has won the toss on 5 occasions.

The average first innings total in VIVO IPL 2017 matches at Rajkot is 189. There have been a total of 63 sixes hit in the four matches played at the venue this season.

Mumbai Indians have hit the most sixes this season; their batsmen have hit a total of 65 sixes in the eight matches.

Mumbai Indians have only had 6 50-run partnerships this season – the fewest among all teams, while the Lions have stitched together 10 such partnerships.

What Next

For Gujarat Lions: Return fixture (Away) Vs. Rising Pune Supergiant, May 1 (8pm)

For Mumbai Indians: Return fixture (Home) Vs. Royal Challengers Bangalore, May 1 (4pm)