After their loss to the Punjab Kings (PBKS), five-time champions Mumbai Indians (MI) will look to address their poor death over bowling when they take on a faltering Gujarat Titans (GT) in their Indian Premier League (IPL) match at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Tuesday, April 25.
After their usual poor start to the season, MI enjoyed a hat-trick of wins which was cut short by PBKS on Saturday, April 24. On the night, MI were hurt by their death-over bowling as they conceded 96 runs in the final five overs to allow PBKS to set a target of 214/8. They will have to sort out their bowling ahead of the GT clash as they face a team of potential power hitters.
It was the pace quartet of Arjun Tendulkar, Jason Behrendorff, Cameron Green and Jofra Archer who were put under the pump as they conceded more than 40 runs in their quota of overs. The experienced Piyush Chawla and his spin bowling colleague Hrithik Shokeen, however, have been on the money as they restricted the flow of runs, with the former snapping two wickets as well.
MI's batting unit has looked formidable with the top and middle order being among the runs.
While Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan have given a good start to their team on some occasions, Suryakumar Yadav's return to form is a big positive for MI, who have been served well by the overseas duo of Cameron Green and Tim David.
In fact, Green and Suryakumar had almost won the match against the Kings with a 36-ball 75-run stand before losing their wickets off Arshdeep Singh's magical bowling at the death.
Things are not going to be any easier for the MI batters as the Titans possessed a strong bowling attack as well. They displayed their class against GT with a master class at the death overs as they strangle Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in their previous match.
The star of GT was their medium-pacer Mohit Sharma, who walked away with the Player of the Match award after using his variations to telling effect against the Lucknow side. GT were in a dire situation with LSG cruising at 105 for 1 in 14 overs while chasing 136 but the bowlers, led by Mohit, denied them as he defended 12 runs in the final over.
While Mohit has been a revelation, veteran Mohammed Shami has been among the wickets as well. However, skipper Hardik Pandya has not really fired with the ball, having picked up only one wicket so far. Led by Rashid Khan, Gujarat's spin department looks potent with fellow Afghan wrist spinner Noor Ahmad and Jayant Thakur delivering under pressure against LSG.
Jayant conceded just seven in his last two overs, and debutant Noor took two wickets for just five runs in his final two overs to set up the win for GT the other day. The batters have chased down totals but they have been sometimes guilty of not being able to push the score in middle overs.
While Wriddhiman Saha and Shubman Gill have scored runs at the top, Hardik top-scored in their last match, GT were about 10-15 runs short against LSG, mainly due to their slow batting in middle overs, something the team will need to address.
Also, GT might need to give their top overseas batter David Miller more time in the middle by promoting him up the order.
Squads:
Gujarat Titans
Hardik Pandya (c), Srikar Bharat, Alzarri Joseph, Josh Little, Abhinav Manohar, David Miller, Mohammed Shami, Darshan Nalkande, Noor Ahmad, Urvil Patel, Rashid Khan, Wriddhiman Saha, R Sai Kishore, Sai Sudharsan, Pradeep Sangwan, Dasun Shanaka, Vijay Shankar, Mohit Sharma, Shivam Mavi, Shubman Gill, Odean Smith, Rahul Tewatia, Matthew Wade, Jayant Yadav, Yash Dayal.
Mumbai Indians
Rohit Sharma (c), Suryakumar Yadav, Tim David, Dewald Brevis, Tilak Varma, Ishan Kishan (wk), Tristan Stubbs, Vishnu Vinod, Cameron Green, Arjun Tendulkar, Ramandeep Singh, Shams Mulani, Riley Meredith Nehal Wadhera, Hrithik Shokeen, Arshad Khan, Duan Jansen, Piyush Chawla, Kumar Kartikeya, Raghav Goyal, Jofra Archer, Jason Behrendorff, Akash Madhwal.
