What

Sunrisers Hyderabad will look to notch up a fourth consecutive win when they take on the Mumbai Indians in Match 19 of VIVO IPL 2019.

The Sunrisers, who were blown away by Kolkata Knight Riders’ Andre Russell in their season opener, have since managed to post three consecutive wins. Most recently, on Thursday night, they defeated the Delhi Capitals in the national capital; that win took them to the top of the standings with six points and have a very healthy net run rate of 1.780.

The Mumbai Indians currently find themselves in the bottom half of the table; they have two wins from four matches. In their most recent match, they got the better of the then table-toppers Chennai Super Kings at home. MI were headed towards a modest total when Hardik Pandya and Kieron Pollard tore into the CSK bowlers in the last two overs and helped their team to what turned out to be a match-winning total. Buoyed by the drastic swing in momentum in the last two overs of their innings, MI landed a few telling blows in the early overs of CSK’s run-chase and went on to win by a convincing margin of 37 runs.

Despite being the Sunrisers’ captain, Kane Williamson has now missed the team’s last two matches. There hasn’t been any indication from the team if Williamson was being rested to give his injured shoulder sufficient time to heal, or if it was a strategy so there would be place for Mohammad Nabi in the XI. One expects the Sunrisers will stick to the same side that took the field in Delhi; Nabi will be a very valuable bowling option in this match too,considering the Mumbai Indians have three left-hand batsmen in their line-up.

The one area that the Mumbai Indians need to address is the eight overs bowled by their fourth and fifth bowlers. Though Hardik Pandya picked up three wickets in the previous match against CSK, overall this season MI have leaked too many runs in the eight overs bowled by their fourth and fifth bowlers. One way to plug that weakness is by bringing in Jayant Yadav or Mayank Markande into the XI, with the expectation that they can bowl four tight overs.

If Lasith Malinga, who made a quick dash back home to play in the domestic one-day competition, is unavailable or is rested, there’s a good chance the Mumbai Indians could bring in Mitchell McClenaghan or hand a debut to Alzarri Joseph.

When

6 April 2019, 8pm IST

Where

Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium, Hyderabad

Previous Match XIs:

Sunrisers Hyderabad:David Warner, Jonny Bairstow, Vijay Shankar, Manish Pandey, Deepak Hooda, Yusuf Pathan, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Siddarth Kaul, Sandeep Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

Mumbai Indians:Quinton de Kock, Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Yuvraj Singh, Krunal Pandya, Hardik Pandya, Rahul Chahar, Jason Behrendorff, Lasith Malinga, JaspritBumrah.

Protagonists

David Warner and Jonny Bairstow have aggregates of 264 runs and 246 runs respectively. The third highest run-aggregate in the tournament is Andre Russell’s 159. The third highest run-aggregate in the SRH line-up is Vijay Shankar’s 100 runs. Those numbers best illustrate how much of a force Warner and Bairstow have been at the top.

The Mumbai Indians will want their top three to give a better account of themselves. Barring two single-digit scores, MI’s top three has got starts in every innings. Yet, in 12 innings together, they have only contributed a total of 331 runs. MI, who have repeatedly been rescued by Hardik Pandya, need Quinton de Kock, Rohit Sharma or Suryakumar Yadav to convert starts to big scores.

It isn’t too often that Rashid Khan’s name doesn’t feature among the top wicket-takers in competitions he competes in. Rashid has been frugal as ever – his economy rate this season is 5.81 – but he has only three wickets to show for all his good work. It won’t be too long before he collects a big haul of wickets. Also keep a close eye on Mohammad Nabi, who has 6 wickets in the two matches this season and also scored the winning runs in the previous match.

When MI have the ball in hand, the responsibility of striking early and separating the dangerous pair of Warner and Bairstow will fall on the shoulders of Jasprit Bumrah.

Head to Head in Indian Premier League

Overall: Matches – 12,Sunrisers Hyderabad – 7, Mumbai Indians – 5.

Since 2016: Matches – 6, Sunrisers Hyderabad – 5, Mumbai Indians – 1.

Sunrisers Hyderabad got the better of the Mumbai Indians in both meetings last season. In the first meeting in Hyderabad, Billy Stanlake struck his first-ever boundary in T20 cricket to take Sunrisers Hyderabad to a thrilling last-ball win. In the return fixture in Mumbai, Sunrisers were bowled out for 118, but defended even that low total by dismissing the hosts for 87 – registering an emphatic 31-run win.

Trivia

Sunrisers Hyderabad’s scoring rate of 10.16 in the powerplay period is the best among all teams in VIVO IPL 2019.

7 of Mohammad Nabi’s 9 wickets in the IPL are of left-hand batsmen.

Rashid Khan has an overall economy rate of 4.06 in the four matches he has played against the Mumbai Indians.