A confident Mumbai Indians team will face defending champions Gujarat Titans at the top of the points table in a crucial match of the Indian Premier League today. For the first time in the current season of IPL, Mumbai Indians team is looking dominant and has reached the third position in the points table after defeating Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by six wickets here on Tuesday. Mumbai chased down RCB’s target of 200 runs within 17 overs which shows how strong the team’s batting line-up is.
The team, however, changed the batting order for the second consecutive match to increase the net run rate. The team’s best batsman and skipper Rohit Sharma is struggling with poor form and has failed to even reach double figures in the last five innings but despite this, Mumbai batsmen have scored 200 or more targets twice in three attempts at the Wankhede Stadium. Achieved it. Even against Punjab Kings, Mumbai had scored 201 for six while chasing a target of 215 runs.
The biggest worry for Mumbai this season is not Rohit’s form but the team’s bowling. More than 200 runs were scored in four consecutive matches against the team while RCB’s team also managed to score 199 runs. In the last three matches, the opposition teams took advantage of flat wickets and batting-friendly conditions to score 214 for eight, 212 for seven and 199 for six against Mumbai Indians and Gujarat Titans will also be eyeing big scores.
The Mumbai team did well in the middle overs against RCB but Gujarat Titans have batsmen running in form in the lower order unlike RCB. Suryakumar Yadav’s 35-ball 83 and Nehal Wadhera’s second half-century helped Mumbai Indians register a comfortable win against RCB but the team knows they cannot take any chances against the toppers Gujarat Titans. Suryakumar’s return to form is the biggest positive for Mumbai while Ishan Kishan, Cameron Green, Tim David and Tilak Verma have also played useful innings for the team. It remains to be seen whether Verma is fit for Friday’s clash. A lot in the match, however, will also depend on how the Mumbai batsmen fare in Gujarat’s eight overs against Afghanistan’s two spinners, Rashid Khan and Noor Ahmed. Gujarat has won eight out of 11 matches and is on the verge of making it to the play-offs.
Captain Hardik Pandya and Ashish Nehra have been successful in creating an environment conducive to the success of the players this year as well, due to which the team has emerged as a strong contender for the title for the second year in a row. Gujarat Titans have not lost any away match this year and all the three defeats so far have come at their home ground in Ahmedabad. The Gujarat opening pair of Shubman Gill and Wriddhiman Saha have been in fine form and are setting the stage for a big total. Hardik and David Miller have also impressed with the bat while Rahul Tewatia’s presence in the lower order strengthens the batting.
Squad: Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Jofra Archer, Arshad Khan, Jason Behrendorff, Dewald Brewis, Piyush Chawla, Tim Davids, Raghav Goel, Cameron Green, Ishan Kishan, Dwayne Jenson, Chris Jordan, Kumar Kartikeya, Akash Madhwal, Riley Meredith, Shams Mulani, Ramandeep Singh, Sandeep Warrier, Hrithik Shokeen, Tristan Stubbs, Arjun Tendulkar, Tilak Verma, Vishnu Vinod, Nehal Wadhera and Suryakumar Yadav. Gujarat Titans: Hardik Pandya (Captain), Shubman Gill, David Miller, Abhinav Manohar, Sai Sudarshan, Wriddhiman Saha, Matthew Wade, Rashid Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Vijay Shankar, Mohammed Shami, Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal, Pradeep Sangwan, Darshan Nalkande , Jayant Yadav, R Sai Kishore, Noor Ahmed, Dasun Shanaka, Odion Smith, KS Bharat, Shivam Mavi, Urvil Patel, Joshua Little and Mohit Sharma.
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