Mumbai look to reclaim top spot against ropy Hyderabad (Preview)

The Mumbai march hit a road block in their last match against Punjab and got literally thrashed. However, one loss doesn’t mean the most impressive team in the tournament is not a force to reckon with. Now, they will have to refocus so that the top spot in the league standings is reclaimed from Chennai.

Although, Mumbai have an assured slot in the next stage of the tournament, they would try to prove that the loss against Punjab was just an aberration. For that, the batting needs to do well, the dramatic collapse has put some doubts on their ability to handle pressure at crucial stages of a game. All of Mumbai’s batsmen were dismissed trying to hit big shots. That has to change if Mumbai does not want a repeat of last year’s IPL, when they faltered in the finals. The big loss also meant that the Tendulkar-led side’s net run rate took a hit and they would like to undo the damage through a convincing win over Hyderabad.

Conversely, Hyderabad have nothing to lose as the play-off race is already over for the Sangakkara led side. They have been pretty ordinary so far in this year’s IPl having finished on the winning side only thrice out of eleven matches. No surprise, they are languishing at the bottom of the table. On paper, they have one of the most potent bowling attacks among all the franchises. Dale Steyn, Ishant Sharam and Pragyan Ojha are all match-winning bowlers but for some reason the combination has not clicked. The fielding has been a big let down. They have dropped catches in almost every match. And, the ground fielding has been no better.

The skipper, Kumar Sangakkara is possibly playing his last match in the tournament as he will be leaving for national duty, so one last time for him to do make an impression. The team needs to motivate itself to give its best in a game that is inconsequential.

MUMBAI

Players who can make impact…

Sachin Tendulkar…The ‘little master’ started his batting in IPL-4 with a bang but in the last few matches big runs haven’t come. As a result, he lost the Orange Cap, currently he is fifth on the run scorers chart but it is just a matter of one good innings.

Andrew Symonds….He is a destructive batsman in any format of the game. Although, he bats low down for Mumbai, his clean hitting can change the course of match in a span of few overs.

SQUAD

Abu Nechim , Aditya Tare (wk), Aiden Blizzard, Ali Murtaza, Ambati Rayudu, Andrew Symonds, Davy Jacobs, Dhawal Kulkarni, Harbhajan Singh, James Franklin, Kieron Pollard, Lasith Malinga, Moises Henriques, Munaf Patel, Pawan Suyal, Rajagopal Sathish, Rohit Sharma, Sachin Tendulkar (c), Santosh Yadav, Sarul Kanwar, Tirumalsetti Suman, Yuzvendra Chahal

HYDERABAD

Players who can make impact…

Ishant Sharma…..Height is a big advantage for the lanky bowler and coupled with brisk pace and sharp in-swing, he can be a handful on most wickets.

K Sangakkara….This is the last opportunity to win his side a game with his bat, something he has failed to do all season. The captaincy has been off-colour as well, so he would go all-out for a win.

SQUAD

Akash Bhandari, Amit Mishra, Anand Rajan, Ankit Sharma, Ashish Reddy, Bharat Chipli, Cameron White, Chris Lynn, Dale Steyn, Daniel Christian, DR Teja, Harmeet Singh, Ishan Malhotra, Ishank Jaggi, Ishant Sharma, Jaydev Shah, JP Duminy, Juan Theron, K Sangakkara (c)(wk), Kedar Devdhar, Manpreet Gony, Michael Lumb, Pragyan Ojha, Shikhar Dhawan, Sunny Sohal.