Sunrisers & MI eye first points
Points. That’s on the minds of hosts Sunrisers Hyderabad and heavyweights Mumbai Indians when they try to pick up the pieces at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium on Wednesday night.
Having come close to winning starts in their openers, both teams will rue the ones that got away, in away games. SRH lost their first match to Kolkata Knight Riders by just four runs. The next day, Mumbai went down to Gujarat Titans in a captains’ grudge match by six runs.
However, as MI leader Hardik Pandya said, there’s a lot to play for in the long-drawn League and with the first of 13 matches to go for each team coming up, the Blues and Oranges would like to turn in a red hot show at the RGICS and activate the last column on the points table to life.
Hardik has much of the headache it would seem. His team could not crack 48 against the Titans in the last six overs, with seven wickets in hand. The batting order too looked entangled, big time, as they made a mess of the 168-run chase.
Sidelined skipper Rohit Sharma did his bit at the top with a 40-plus knock as did substitute Dewald Brevis. Tilak Varma and Naman Dhir contributed quick 20s but that’s where the batting talk ends. Biggies Hardik and Tim David could only manage 11 each, with the latter pinned down at No. 7 in the line-up.
For Mumbai’s Tilak, it will be a home game, having grown up playing extensively on the ground he will take to on Wednesday.
The Sunrisers appear to be in the same boat as Mumbai, batting wise. After fits and starts, they needed some serious hitting from Heinrich Klaasen to run the 208run chase close before losing it all with just seven required off the last five balls.
On the bowling front, big tag captain Pat Cummins will need to spearhead the SRH attack. Seasoned seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Marco Jansen were not too impressive against KKR even as the promising Natarajan did well.
Mumbai will also think of shuffling their bowling pack. Pushing pace ace Jasprit Bumrah upfront will be high on the list lest they end up being the butt of ridicule, like in their last outing.