What

The final match of the UAE leg of Pepsi IPL 2014 will feature the Mumbai Indians and the Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Both teams have had a disappointing tour of the UAE and occupy the bottom two spots in the Pepsi IPL 2014 standings. The defending champions, Mumbai Indians, are yet to open their account after four outings, while Sunrisers Hyderabad managed their lone victory in their game against the Delhi Daredevils.

In the most recent outing, MI lost to the Delhi Daredevils at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium, while SRH were defeated by the Chennai Super Kings.

When

Wednesday, April 30, 2014, 8 pm IST

Where

Dubai International Stadium, Dubai

The Protagonists

The bowling attack of the Mumbai Indians has done a reasonable job and the team finds itself in a tight spot because the batsmen haven’t done justice to their respective reputations. With a lot of firepower down the order – in Kieron Pollard and Corey Anderson – it is important that the three men at the top, led by their captain Rohit Sharma, lay the foundation. Sharma – the only MI player to score a half-century so far this season – and Michael Hussey are the most crucial players in MI’s top three, and the team will expect the runs to flow from their willow.

The only time the Sunrisers Hyderabad – comprising skipper Shikhar Dhawan, Aaron Finch and David Warner – fired in unison, the team went on to post a win. Therein lies the formula for the team to succeed – sufficient runs from the top three.

Notes from Previous match

Mumbai Indians v Delhi Daredevils: There is a lot of onus on runs from the top order in this format of the game – especially because they get the most overs to bat and have the advantage of the fielding restrictions. However, in their previous match, the MI top three only managed 25 runs and that must surely be an area in which they will look to improve. The other area that MI will most definitely need an improvement in is the number of dot balls played; the MI innings had 53 dot deliveries last time around – that is close to half the innings!

Sunrisers Hyderabad v Chennai Super Kings: Given the composition of their XI over the last few matches, there is a lot of pressure on the big three – Dhawan, Finch and Warner – to come up with the goods. The team needs to work out a way to get the most out of these three; in the last match, SRH realised only 51 runs from the big three. The other worry for the SRH team management must be the form of two of their senior bowlers – Ishant Sharma and Amit Mishra. Against CSK, Ishant came in for a lot of stick and conceded 37 runs in his four overs. Mishra had a good start to the season but has come in for plenty of punishment over the last three matches. Being the premier spinner in the team, he needs to pick up wickets.

Previous Meetings

The Mumbai Indians and Sunrisers Hyderabad won their respective home matches when they met in Pepsi IPL 2013. SRH chased down 129 in their first ever meeting against MI, in Hyderabad. In the next clash, a Kieron Pollard blitz helped MI chase down 178 at Wankhede Stadium. Needing 62 off the last four overs, Pollard got stuck into Thisara Perera, hitting him for a four and three consecutive sixes. That wasn’t the end of the carnage; Amit Mishra too came in for punishment as he was hit for three sixes as the required rate plummeted to a run-a-ball. The Trinidadian finished off the match in style by slamming Perera for two sixes to take his team home with three balls to spare.

Trivia

Mumbai Indians have the lowest boundary percentage of all teams in Pepsi IPL 2014; only 40.16 percent of the runs they’ve scored this season have been through boundaries.

Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Amit Mishra needs one more wicket to become the second bowler to take 100 wickets in the IPL.

This is the second time that Mumbai Indians have lost their first four matches in a season. They had a similar run in the inaugural season in 2008 before they made a stunning comeback by winning their next six matches.

What Next

Mumbai Indians’ next outing will be in the familiar setting of Wankhede Stadium when they take on table-toppers Kings XI Punjab on May 3. Sunrisers Hyderabad, meanwhile, head to the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru to take on the Royal Challengers Bangalore on May 4.