Mumbai Indians travel to Hyderabad to face Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Saturday. MI became the first franchise to reach 100 Indian Premier League (IPL) wins in their last game against Chennai Super Kings and will be targeting back-to-back victories on Saturday for the first time this season. Mumbai have won two and lost two of their matches so far and head into the contest against Hyderabad in sixth spot in the league table. SRH, on the other hand, find themselves on top of the standings after three successive wins followed the loss in their season opener.

Head-to-head

MI 5–7 SRH

Form Guide

Mumbai Indians: W L W L

Sunrisers Hyderabad: W W W L

From the MI dugout

The MI players will be in high spirits following a convincing victory over defending champions CSK in our last encounter. Skipper Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav and Quinton de Kock have made their presence felt at the top of the order for Mumbai, while Krunal Pandya and Kieron Pollard also showed us glimpses of what they’re capable of in the previous match. Mumbai’s bowlers seem to be finding form as well and were on the mark in the last game. Jason Behrendorff replaced Mitchell McClenaghan against CSK and the Aussie left-arm pacer made an instant impact with 2 wickets. He along with Lasith Malinga, Jasprit Bumrah and the rest of our bowling options made it very difficult for Chennai’s batsmen to score, and they will be hoping for more of the same against Hyderabad.

Key Player

Hardik Pandya looks in red hot form and will be confident heading into the encounter against SRH after a Man of the Match performance in the previous game. The powerful all-rounder has looked in good touch and his 25 runs from 8 balls in the back end of Mumbai’s innings against Chennai played a massive role in our win. His quickfire knock gave us a competitive score as well as the momentum against CSK in the second innings, which saw him take 3 wickets and concede just 20 runs for his best bowling performance in IPL history.

From the SRH dugout

League leaders SRH are very strong at home, meaning we’ll have to be at our best if we are hoping for a positive result. One of the most balanced sides in the league, SRH have the likes of David Warner, Manish Pandey, Yusuf Pathan and Vijay Shankar in their batting unit. All-rounders Mohammad Nabi and Rashid Khan are also important players for the overall balance of their team. Nabi, in fact, has the best bowling figures (4 for 11) this season. They can be attacking at the death as well with Bhuvneshwar Kumar being the most senior seamer in their bowling unit.

Key Player

Jonny Bairstow’s wicket will be key for Mumbai. The English wicketkeeper is enjoying a magnificent debut IPL season. His 114 against Royal Challengers Bangalore is the top score by an individual this year and judging by his 48 off 28 balls in Sunrisers Hyderabad’s last win against Delhi Capitals, he’ll be a major threat against us as well.