Sunrisers eyes consistency against frail Mumbai Indians
MUMBAI: A confident Sunrisers Hyderabad will look to produce a dominant show against a frail Mumbai Indians outfit and move up in the Indian Premier League points table when the two teams clash here on Monday.
Placed fifth in the IPL points table with 12 points in 10 matches with six wins and four losses, SRH will be desperate to produce an all-round show and make improvements especially in its bowling department.
The Pat Cummins-led side is in the midst of an intense battle between multiple teams who are bidding for spots in the final four, with Rajasthan Royals (16 points), Kolkata Knight Riders (14 points) and Lucknow Super Giants (12 points) placed above SRH.
Chennai Super Kings (3rd with 12 points) and a resurgent Delhi Capitals (6th with 10 points) are breathing down SRH’s neck, a scenario that would force the 2016 winner to shrug off any rust and get ready for an intense mid-table battle.
If a two-paced pitch at the Wankhede Stadium for the previous clash against KKR was an aberration, the free-flowing SRH batters would look to make merry and pile up a huge score as they have done several times this year.
The pitches here generally are batting-friendly and short boundary lengths at this venue make scores in excess of 200 a norm, but the MIKKR contest played out on a sluggish surface last Friday challenged the batters to dig deep.
SRH would be high on confidence having pipped the table-topper RR by just one run in its previous outing, a game in which its bowlers pulled off a thrilling win.
Travis Head (396 runs), Abhishek Sharma (315) and Heinrich Klaasen (337) remain the enforcers in SRH’s batting but South African Aiden Markram would be keen to make a big score of his own, having had a mixed run so far.