Upbeat Mumbai hope for more knockout magic
The equation is simple for Sunrisers Hyderabad and Mumbai Indians: The winner moves on to the playoffs, the loser pulls curtains on their season.
The Preview by Amol Karhadkar
16-May-2015
Match facts
Sunday, May 17, 2015
Start time 2000 local (1430 GMT)
Start time 2000 local (1430 GMT)
Big Picture
It will be the last of the 56 group stage games and it will decide the last of the four qualifiers. The equation is simple: The winner moves on to the playoffs, the loser pulls curtains on their season.
There is very little to choose between the two teams. Sunrisers enjoy home advantage, but Mumbai Indians hold a slight edge. Not just because they enter the game having won six of their previous seven encounters, they also have a knack for pulling off stunners at the latter stages and make it to the knockouts.
They did in in the CLT20 2013, chasing 150 against Perth Scorchers in the last league game in a little over 13 overs to scrape through to the semi-finals. They did it again in IPL 2014, edging Rajasthan Royals by running down an improbable 190 in 14.3 overs. Here they are, hoping to repeat what they are best at.
But Sunrisers, in the second half of the tournament, have emerged as a formidable unit and they will hope to make it to the top four for the second time in three seasons. The last thing Hyderabadis would want is for weather to intervene like it did on Friday night. At the moment, the forecast is partly cloudy. And neither team would not want the heavens to open up.
Form guide
Sunrisers Hyderabad LWWWL (last five matches, most recent first)
Mumbai Indians WLWWW
Mumbai Indians WLWWW
Watch out for…
Trent Boult (and Kane Williamson) will head to England to join the New Zealand squad after Sunday's game. And Boult will be keen to get a look in and help Sunrisers get the better of Mumbai. That Shane Bond, the former New Zealand bowling coach, will be present in the Mumbai dugout might give additional zip to Boult's performance.
He has a reputation of coming good when it matters the most. But Rohit Sharma will not enter the game with the best form. Though he has tallied 400-plus runs this season, he hasn't been able to notch up a fifty for nine innings. The Mumbai captain will be hoping to get a big one come Sunday.
Stats and trivia
- David Warner is one shy of joining Chris Gayle as the batsman with most fifty-plus scores in an IPL season. While Warner has registered seven so far this season, Gayle had struck seven fifties and a century in 2012.
- Ambati Rayudu needs 55 runs to join Sachin Tendulkar and Rohit Sharma in 2000 IPL runs club for Mumbai Indians.
- Mumbai Indians have made the cut into the top four in each of the last five IPL seasons.
Quotes
"We can walk away very proud with that performance today. And we can take the positives from today into Sunday and make sure we play our best game in the last round."
Tom Moody does his best to keep Sunrisers' morale up after a disappointing loss on Friday
"Hopefully tomorrow we can put together forty overs of very consistent cricket and if we do that I think we will be really hard to beat"
Ricky Ponting believes Mumbai Indians have been nowhere near their best
Amol Karhadkar is a correspondent at ESPNcricinfo