Sunrisers and Mumbai look to ride on their momentum and enter the top half
Big picture: A winning streak will stop
One of these teams will have its winning momentum snapped, the other will take its winning streak to three matches when Sunrisers Hyderabad host Mumbai Indians in Hyderabad. They both made identical starts to the season with two successive defeats before bouncing back with two wins each.
Sunrisers might well have made a pivotal move in Harry Brook's T20 career by using him as an opener and getting a match-winning century out of him. Brook the opener and the return of Abhishek Sharma to help out Aiden Markram in the middle order have given Sunrisers the potency they seemed to lack at the start of the season.
Mayank Markande as the legspinner replacement for Adil Rashid has allowed Sunrisers to play Marco Jansen, which gives the side a sharp edge. If Jofra Archer is not yet available for Mumbai, Marco might well go up against his twin Duan Jansen only for the second time in professional cricket.
It is a danger sign for other teams that Mumbai have won two out of four without Jasprit Bumrah and Archer; Archer should become available at some point. Suryakumar Yadav showed signs of return to runs in their last match, which sets them up beautifully with the bat.
IPL 2023 Form guide
Sunrisers Hyderabad WWLL (most recent match first)
Chennai Super Kings WWLL
Team news: Spotlight on Archer again
All eyes are still on Archer, who is nursing an elbow niggle since he played the first match. If he is fit and ready, he should walk into the Mumbai XI, but they are not likely to take any risks with him.
Toss and Impact Player strategy
Sunrisers Hyderabad
Sunrisers have no reason to change their combination except for using Washington Sundar more efficiently. If they bat first, they can start with Washington in the XI and have T Natarajan replace Brook in the innings break. If they field first, Brook can replace Natarajan in the innings break.
Probable bat-first XI: 1 Mayank Agarwal, 2 Harry Brook, 3 Rahul Tripathi, 4 Aiden Markram (capt), 5 Abhishek Sharma, 6 Heinrich Klaasen (wk), 7 Washington Sundar, 8 Marco Jansen, 9 Mayank Markande, 10 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 11 Umran Malik
Probable field-first XI: 1 Mayank Agarwal, 2 Rahul Tripathi, 3 Aiden Markram (capt), 4 Abhishek Sharma, 5 Heinrich Klaasen (wk), 6 Washington Sundar, 7 Marco Jansen, 8 Mayank Markande, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Umran Malik, 11 T Natarajan
Mumbai Indians
Mumbai might want to continue with the combination they used in the last match even though they used Arjun Tendulkar for two overs only. One out of Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar can sit out during the bowling innings.
Possible bat-first XI: 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Ishan Kishan (wk), 3 Suryakumar Yadav, 4 Tilak Varma, 5 Cameron Green, 6 Nehal Wadhera, 7 Tim David, 8 Hrithik Shokeen, 9 Piyush Chawla, 10 Riley Meredith, 11 Duan Jansen/Jason Behrendoff
Possible bowl-first XI: 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Ishan Kishan (wk), 3 Tilak Varma, 4 Cameron Green, 5 Nehal Wadhera, 6 Tim David, 7 Hrithik Shokeen, 8 Arshad Khan/Arjun Tendulkar, 9 Piyush Chawla, 10 11 Riley Meredith, 11 Duan Jansen/Jason Behrendorff
Stats that matter
- During his century, Brook scored 66 runs in 26 shots between cover-point and backward point. Out of these, eight balls were pretty straight but Brook managed to create room and take 29 runs off them. Mumbai will look to deny him any room.
- Since the start of the last IPL, Abhishek has been the fifth-quickest batter (minimum 150 runs) against spin.
- In just two matches, Marco Jansen has taken four wickets in the powerplay, the fourth-highest this IPL.
- Rohit and Ishan Kishan are the second-quickest opening combination (minimum two partnerships) this IPL.
- Piyush Chawla has been the revelation of the season, and has the best economy rate among bowlers who have bowled at least ten overs.