Sunrisers gear up to unleash Mustafizur-Rashid combo
Sunrisers Hyderabad will be forced to rethink a settled combination with the return of Mustafizur Rahman, as they take on a charged-up Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede
The Preview by Varun Shetty
11-Apr-2017
Match facts
Mumbai Indians v Sunrisers Hyderabad
Mumbai, April 12, 2017
Start time 2000 local (1430 GMT)
Mumbai, April 12, 2017
Start time 2000 local (1430 GMT)
Head-to-head
Last season: Sunrisers won both home and away against Mumbai last year - David Warner scored an unbeaten 90 as they chased 143 in Hyderabad and their left-arm pacers took eight wickets to bowl Mumbai out for 92 in Visakhapatnam.
Overall: It is 4-4 overall, but Mumbai have won both encounters at Wankhede - in 2013 and 2015.
In the news
We could see the Sunrisers make their first shuffle to a settled XI. Bangladesh medium-pacer Mustafizur Rahman has joined the squad and could be drafted straight back, considering his limited availability to them in this edition. Mustafizur alongside Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rashid Khan and Ashish Nehra is possibly the strongest bowling attack anyone can field at batting-friendly Wankhede.
Mumbai have no injury concerns at the moment, apart from Ambati Rayudu who was stretchered off with a groin strain in their first match, against Pune. Head coach Mahela Jayawardene had said at the time that Rayudu would be out for at least ten days.
Sri Lankan fast bowler Lasith Malinga returned in their win against Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday and has already made an impact. But it was left-hand batsman Nitish Rana who was at the forefront of that victory, scoring 50 off 29 balls to spearhead Mumbai's chase of 179.
The likely XIs
Should Sunrisers change a winning combination to play Mustafizur?
1 votesYes
No
Mumbai Indians: 1 Jos Buttler, 2 Parthiv Patel (wk), 3 Rohit Sharma (capt), 4 Nitish Rana, 5 Kieron Pollard, 6 Krunal Pandya 7 Hardik Pandya, 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 Jasprit Bumrah, 10 Mitchell McClenaghan, 11 Lasith Malinga
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 1 David Warner (capt), 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Moises Henriques, 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 Deepak Hooda, 6 Naman Ojha (wk) , 7 Bipul Sharma/Vijay Shankar, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Ashish Nehra, 11 Mustafizur Rahman
Stats that matter
- In all T20 matches at the Wankhede since the start of 2016, the chasing team has lost only three out of 26 matches. The chasing team has won each of the last five IPL games at the venue.
- The two captains also have other reasons to chase: David Warner has seven fifties in nine innings while chasing since the start of IPL 2016, including his unbeaten 76 against Gujarat Lions in the last game. Rohit has five fifties in seven innings while chasing, during that same period.
- Lasith Malinga has dismissed Shikhar Dhawan four times in the IPL. Zaheer Khan and James Faulkner have also dismissed him four times.
- Since the start of IPL 2015, six of Rohit's eight dismissals against spinners have been against legspinners and left-arm spinners. He might face Rashid Khan and Bipul Sharma in tandem in Wednesday's game.
- Of the 88 wickets taken by Sunrisers' bowlers in 2016, 75 were shared across their regular choice of five strike bowlers - Mustafizur, Bhuvneshwar, Nehra, Barinder Sran and Moises Henriques.
- Four of Rashid Khan's five wickets this season have been bowled or lbw. Four of those five wickets have come in the first ten overs of the innings. He has conceded 31 runs off five overs in that phase of the innings.
- Mitchell McCleneghan's short-ball strategy fetched him six wickets last season at an economy rate of more than 10. This year he has gone for 41 runs off 19 short balls, getting no wickets in the bargain.
Varun Shetty is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo