The weekend will end with another thrilling battle of heavyweights as defending champions Mumbai Indians will take on Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Mumbai Indians are coming off a clinical win over the mighty Kings XI Punjab. Sunrisers, on the other hand, has had a resurgence as they defeated the mighty CSK in their last match.
Mumbai Indians
MI defeated KXIP by a margin of 48 runs, which definitely helped them improve their net run-rate. Rohit Sharma again played a captain’s knock by scoring a match-winning 70 runs off just 45 balls. Ther middle-order has been in great form with Ishan Kishan, Kieron Pollard, and Hardik Pandya in great form.
As per bowling is concerned, the Sharjah pitch is a graveyard for bowlers anyway. Therefore, bowlers will have to pick wickets at regular intervals. The MI side has been doing that with Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult, and James Pattinson. MI would be happy that their spin-bowling has gained some form as well.
Sunrisers Hyderabad
Sunrisers are coming off two huge back-to-back wins overs Delhi Capitals and Chennai Super Kings. Their stacked top-order will have an important role to play. All of David Warner, Johnny Bairstow, and Manish Pandey have been getting starts but will have to show some consistency. They would be extremely happy as their middle-order showed up after the top-order collapsed. Youngsters Abhishek Sharma and Priyam Garg played beautifully to take the side to a respectable total.
SRH would be concerned about their bowling. Bhuvaneshwar Kumar isn’t 100% fit. They needed an experienced player like Kumar who could lead the young bowling attack of Khaleel Ahmed and Natarajan. SRH doesn’t have a complete fifth bowler and will have to rely on Abhishek Sharma and Abdul Samad for four overs. Both being spinners, they might leak runs on Sharjah.
Fantasy XI team
ROHIT SHARMA (10.5) (C) – Rohit Sharma again played a captain’s knock by scoring a match-winning 70 runs off just 45 balls. He’ll be my captain.
DAVID WARNER (10.5) (VC) – David Warner has been in phenomenal form and has been consistent as well. He’ll be my vice-captain.
JOHNNY BAIRSTOW (9.5) – Bairstow has been in great form as well. He has adapted an anchor role and thus scores big.
MANISH PANDEY (9) – Manish Pandey has been in great form and has been given a new role of leading the middle-order.
ISHAN KISHAN (8.5) – After what he did in his first match against RCB, it’s pretty self-explanatory why he makes the place.
KIERON POLLARD (9) – Pollard has looked in great form. Especially against spin in Sharjah, he can change the course of the game.
HARDIK PANDYA (9.5) – Hardik Pandya has looked in great form. He does not take time to settle and can explode at any moment.
JASPRIT BUMRAH (9) – Bumrah is struggling with his form. However, he did well in the super over. He can establish consistency as time passes.
T. NATARAJAN (8) – Natarajan has impressed everyone with his death bowling. He justified himself being picked over Khaleel Ahmed, Siddharth Kaul, and Basil Thampi.
JAMES PATTINSON (8) – Pattinson has been bowling tight and picking wickets at regular intervals as well.
TRENT BOULT (8.5) – Boult has been doing a good job by keeping things tight and picking wickets as well.
PREDICTION
The matches in Sharjah are dependent on toss as well. The team batting first puts up a huge score and thus the team batting second is already under pressure. Therefore, MI has a more versatile set of batsmen who can bat in any situation. Plus all of them are in decent form.
Also, Sunrisers’ best bowler is Rashid Khan. Khan being a spinner might not be effective in Sharjah. Also, they lack a fifth complete bowler. MI will therefore defeat SRH.
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