Both teams have had contrary looking seasons so far, PBKS started their tournament on a winning note but lost the momentum. On the other hand, MI lost initial matches of the tournament but now they have won three matches in a row.
Let’s take a look at analysis of both sides going into this match:
Mumbai Indians
Mumbai Indians are at the 6 position in the points table, happening in more powerful team than that. De defeated DC KKR than SRS and also convincingly that they are high on momentum and self confidence which is the great thing to carry in the tournament.
Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan both have provided great start in all three matches they have won. Middle order is one of the strongest in the whole tournament consisting of Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav, Tim David and Cameron green. All of them are certified match winners.
Four of the five batters have half centuries to their names in this IPL. The inclusion of Piyush Chawla has given a head to the MI spin bowling department.
After going with uncapped Indian bowlers in first few matches, now MI has constantly backed Rilee Meredith and Jason Behrendorff to lead the fast bowling attack.
Arjun Tendulkar is developing his game and Cameron green is playing as fourth fast bowler this tells us strong the bowling line up Mumbai has.
Punjab Kings
Fire to sign that Punjab Kings has one of the best bowling line up but there that is haven’t been able to support that effort from the bowlers. They lost against srh where they could only score 144, same story went against RCB where despite RCB getting start but PBKS bowlers bowled really well in middle and last over and restricted them to the score of 174.
However, their batting was absolutely frivolous. Everyone wanted to finish the game too early, and in that process they kept losing wickets. That the inexperience of their batting order has been consistently exploited by the opposition bowlers.
Shikhar Dhawan won’t be available so there will be lot of responsibility on Prabhsimran to bat through at least 12 overs. The experiment of batting with Matthew Short hasn’t helped much, his struggle against spin is quite visible but the pitch of Wankhede may suit his game.
It is likely that Kagiso Rabada will be brought in place of Nathan Ellis. PBKS will be hopeful that Liam Livingstone will play some thundering innings this time against MI.
What Does Stats Say and Pitch Report
Talking about head to head matches Mumbai Indians lead 15-14, so it’s not that MI has dominated. Last year, these two sides met once and Mumbai Indians lost that match while chasing.
Rohit Sharma has scored 529 runs against Punjab in his IPL career, but Kagiso Rabada has dismissed Rohit Sharma three times in 74 balls so that will be a good match up.
The pitch of Wankhede is known for batting but in the first six overs, there is always help for pacers who can swing the ball. Anyone who wins the toss, will prefer to chase. Anything around 190 is pretty much chaseable on this ground.