The 9th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2021) will see Mumbai Indians (MI) taking on Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. This match will be played on April 17, 2021, and will begin at 7.30 PM IST.
Mumbai Indians recently won a close encounter against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), while SRH lost a similar game to Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) the other night.
SRH could have won the match easily, being 96/2 chasing 150 to win, but lost wickets in a heap and lost the match by 6 runs.
While MI would want to continue their winning form, SRH needs to win a match to get on the IPL 2021 points table by beating MI.
Keeping in mind, Team COC presents to you the Predicted Playing XIs for the MI v SRH match
MUMBAI INDIANS (MI)
Mumbai got back their mojo against KKR in their last match as they successfully defended 152 runs and won the match by 10 runs. Their bowlers came good against a decent KKR side and prevailed against the likes of Andre Russell and Dinesh Karthik.
The MI side is expected to remain the same with Quinton de Kock and Rohit Sharma opening the innings and Suryakumar Yadav batting in the top three spots of the playing XI. Though De Kock failed to get going in his first match of IPL 2021, expect some fireworks from him. Rohit got into form with a nice 43 and Suryakumar is in the form of his life.
The middle order of Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard, and Krunal Pandya, just need to fine-tune their game a bit on the slow Chennai pitch and they can take that mid-tier final score to close to 180-190 as well.
They are used to playing on the Wankhede pitch where the ball comes onto the bat, but in Chepauk, they need to wait for the cutters and slower balls to hit their big shots.
IPL 2021: WATCH- Rohit Sharma explains why Mumbai Indians bought Piyush Chawla in IPL 14 auction
Marco Jansen has been a nice find for MI this season and bowled pretty well in the death overs as well. Even Rahul Chahar came into great form against KKR, picking his IPL career-best 4/27, while Krunal Pandya has been at his miser best with giving just 13 runs in 4 overs.
Trent Boult and Jasprit Bumrah have done wonders for Rohit Sharma, both at the start. Rohit has used Boult smartly at the start in the powerplays as he struggles in the death overs.
Though SRH is in a conundrum themselves, MI would not like to take them lightly.
SUNRISERS HYDERABAD (SRH)
SRH team imploded against Virat Kohli’s RCB in just one over as Shahbaz Nadeem picked 3 wickets in his one over and put them on the path of a stunning defeat.
One of the biggest problems has been the opening duo, as Wriddhiman Saha has been woefully out of touch, scoring 7 and 1 in two matches for SRH.
IPL 2021: Manish Pandey must be unhappy with how he got out, says SRH mentor VVS Laxman
David Warner has done better and SRH might want to play Priyam Garg as an opener in Saha’s place, as they have Jonny Bairstow to keep wickets as well and they would have some stability at the top in Garg’s form.
Manish Pandey has been a culprit in both SRH losses due to his slow innings especially against RCB when he just couldn’t hit the boundaries and ended up getting out for 38 in 39 balls, with a strike rate of 97, a huge negative in T20 cricket.
Pandey needs to buck up on his strike rate or SRH might need to look for his alternatives as well, as they can’t afford to have someone batting at a strike-rate lower or just par with a run a ball. SRH will also be fretting over the fitness of Kane Williamson, who can bring much-needed stability in their batting.
IPL 2021: WATCH- Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) is capable of beating any team, says Rashid Khan
Abdul Samad has shown some good power-hitting prowess but another issue with them is Vijay Shankar, another batsman whose T20 strike rate of 126 is a problem as he is slotted to bat at the no.6 spot, which is that of a finisher, who needs to hit big shots.
Jason Holder bowled amazingly well and batted nicely as well and is a welcome addition to the team in place of concussed Mohammad Nabi.
Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and T Natarajan have been the trump cards for David Warner with the ball, especially Rashid, who has picked wickets whenever Warner needed one.
Shahbaz Nadeem had done well for three overs against RCB, but undid all his good bowling in one over, giving 20 plus runs.
SRH needs to get their playing XI correct and might have to make some hard decisions about some players either before or after this game against MI.
MI COC Predicted Playing XI:
Quinton de Kock (WK), Rohit Sharma (C), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Marco Jansen, Rahul Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult
SRH COC Predicted Playing XI:
Priyam Garg, David Warner (C), Manish Pandey, Jonny Bairstow (WK), Abdul Samad, Vijay Shankar, Jason Holder, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shahbaz Nadeem, T Natarajan
