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IPL: Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Mumbai Indians Preview

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We take a look at Thursday’s IPL clash which will see the Sunrisers Hyderabad go head to head with the Mumbai Indians at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium. 

The Sunrisers and the Indians experienced contrasting fortunes in their first matches of the season with the former winning comfortably while the men from Mumbai narrowly lost out to CSK.

Will the Sunrisers’ red-hot bowling attack light up the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium or will the Indians bounce back after Saturday’s defeat? Let’s take a look:

SRH vs MI | Thursday 12 April | Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium | 14:30

To Win Match
Sunrisers Hyderabad 82/100
Tie 35/1
Mumbai Indians 21/20

Sunrisers Hyderabad 
The Sunrisers are just such a dangerous team with the ball. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Billy Stanlake are the perfect fire and ice combination at the start of the innings. The former gets the ball to move around while Stanlake is able to generate plenty of pace and even more bounce with his 2.04 metre frame. The two can cause all sorts of problems at the start of the piece as was evidenced on Monday.

Of course, the spin duo of Rashid Khan and Shakib Al-Hasan were typically miserly too, conceding just 46 runs between them. The unsung hero of the day, however, had to be Siddarth Kaul. The right-arm seamer fully justified his selection ahead of Sandeep Sharma and will look to cement his place in the XI with another top class performance.

The big worry, of course, will be the fact that their top order wasn’t really tested at all in pursuit of the Royals’ meagre 125-run total. Still, Shikhar Dhawan and Kane Williamson kept their heads and completed the chase with very little fuss with all of five overs to spare.

You do just wonder, however, whether or not they’ll be able to remain as competitive with the bat without David Warner who is serving a year-long ban. I reckon this side will struggle if Dhawan and Williamson along with Manish Pandey fail with the bat.

Mumbai Indians
The Indians would have been pretty disappointed to have conceded defeat against the Chennai Super Kings in the tournament opener. To be honest, they could probably have used 10 – 15 runs more batting first at the Wankhede.

They were hamstrung by a slow start before the Pandya brothers bailed them out to some extent, plundering 45 runs from Mark Wood’s final three overs. More will be required from the potentially explosive duo of Rohit Sharma and Evin Lewis at the top of the order. Rohit won’t want a repeat performance of his 2017 early season form where he simply couldn’t put together a meaningful innings.

The death bowling also remains a concen going forward. Both Mitchell McClenaghan and Jasprit Bumrah struggled to hit their lengths toward the end as Dwayne Bravo cashed in, grabbing 38-runs in the 17th and 18th overs. Having said that, they’re both better than their last performances suggest and will be keen to impress against an underwhelming batting line-up.

Despite the seamer’s struggles, rookie leg-spinner Mayank Markande was sublime. He returned a miserely economy rate of just 5.75 while also picking up the wickets of MS Dhoni, Ambati Rayudu and Deepak Chahar. Keep an eye 20-year-old in this tournament, he could genuinely be the big find of this edition of the IPL.

Verdict: Sunrisers Hyderabad 82/100
The Sunrisers were simply sensational in their opening game of the competition and definitely look as though they can go all the way in 2018. While this won’t be the doddle it was against the Royals, I do still think they’ll come out on top. 

Written by Jason Dewey for Hollywoodbets

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