(Cricket news) Table toppers Gujarat Titans will look to seal their place in the IPL playoffs this season against the struggling Mumbai Indians. On the other hand MI are already out of the playoff race and will be playing for pride.
The Gujarat Titans only lost their second match against the PBKS as they had won five games on the trot to have gone eight wins out of nine. For the Titans, it will be about how they gather themselves back after batting failures in the past matches. Shubman Gill and Hardik Pandya both started off the tournament in blistering fashion but have failed together in the last few games, which has hampered the side.
In terms of bowling, the GT camp will be a bit worried about Rashid Khan’s form with the ball as he hasn’t been that deadly with ball in hand over the last few matches, but if he is not contributing with the ball, he is certainly compensating with the bat. Their pace trio of Shami, Ferguson and Alzzari Joseph will be the key heading into the match against a struggling MI batting lineup. Rashid has dismissed Rohit Sharma twice in five innings, a battle to watch out for.
Mumbai Indians know that even if they win their next four matches, their chances of qualification are very slim. Mahela Jayawardene, on their chances of qualification, said "If you take four-five games, we have bowled well for 18 overs and we've had two big overs. We are one of those teams that has given 20-plus [runs] overs pretty much in every game and that has cost us at least four to five games. We need to make sure that you don't go for big 20-plus overs, even though we may get hit”.
MI’s top order hasn’t fired at all this season with both Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan struggling to get some valuable runs at the top but the only saving grace this season has been Tilak Verma who has been really impressive and consistent with his performance and is certainly that he will become a franchise mainstay in the future. The opponents have been smart to negate Jasprit Bumrah off and target the other bowlers. Bumrah's economy rate of 6.87 this season with only 5 wickets this season.
Pitch and weather report: The Brabourne pitch can be a batting paradise for the teams, like we saw in yesterday’s match. The shorter side boundaries will play a big role in setting big totals again. The temperature is going to hover around 30 degrees, with no chance of rain as dew may come into play in the second innings.
Interesting facts:
- Mumbai have bowled 40.3 overs of spin in this season
- Bumrah has gone wicketless in six out of the nine games so far
- The Titans' average opening partnership has been 22 runs. Only Kolkata Knight Riders (14.40) have done worse this season.
- Mohammed Shami had just one wicket in four games against Mumbai Indians till IPL 2018.
- Since 2019, only Sanju Samson has scored more runs than Suryakumar Yadav at no 3 in IPL
Also read: Rishabh doing well as DC skipper, big knock isn't far away: Raina
Probable XI for GT:
1 Shubman Gill, 2 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 3 B Sai Sudharsan, 4 Hardik Pandya (capt), 5 David Miller, 6 Rahul Tewatia, 7 Rashid Khan, 8 Alzarri Joseph, 9 Lockie Ferguson, 10 Mohammed Shami, 11 Pradeep Sangwan/Yash Dayal
Probable XI for MI:
1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Ishan Kishan (wk), 3 Suryakumar Yadav, 4 Tilak Varma, 5 Kieron Pollard, 6 Tim David 7 Daniel Sams, 8 Hrithik Shokeen, 9 Jasprit Bumrah, 10 Kumar Kartikeya, 11 Riley Meredith
