Mumbai Indians aim to down Sunrisers Hyderabad

Mumbai Indians will be looking to bolster their position in the standings against Sunrisers Hyderabad after shrugging off their defeat in the tournament opener against Royal Challengers Bangalore with a sweet albeit nervous defeat of Kolkata Knight Riders.

Mumbai won their fifth IPL title in the UAE last year and are happy with making steady progress as the weeks roll on. After his side’s opening match two-wicket last-ball defeat by RCB, Mumbai captain Rohit Sharma said, “Winning the championship is important, not the first game.”

Mumbai got down to backing their skipper immediately. Against KKR, they took the first step to getting their title defence on track and that 10-run victory however critical you might want to be was hard-earned and well constructed with Sharma’s cricketing brain performing to its fullest. And that could turn out to be the difference yet again against the Sunrisers.

Mumbai have a superior record against just about every other IPL rival, but not the Sunrisers. The sides have faced each other 16 times and the victories have been split down the middle. Last season too, it was even with Mumbai winning the first face-off by 34 runs and Sunrisers claiming the second by a whopping 10 wickets.

Sunrisers have failed on the two occasions they volunteered to chase and their thinktank might want to adopt a different approach in a bid to arrest the slide. Chepauk has favoured spinners and Sunrisers are likely to replace T Natarajan with Kedar Jadhav.