Their three-game winning streak snapped after a loss to Punjab Kings, five-time champions Mumbai Indians will look to address their poor death over bowling when they take on a resurgent Gujarat Titans in their IPL 2023 match in Ahmedabad on Tuesday.
After a familiar poor start, MI enjoyed a hat-trick of wins but their impressive run was cut short by Punjab Kings with a 13-run win in Mumbai on Saturday.
Mumbai were let down by their death over bowling as they conceded 96 runs in the final five overs to allow Punjab post a huge 214/8, and they will have to sort out their bowling ahead of the clash against Gujarat.
It was the pace quartet of Arjun Tendulkar, Jason Behrendorff, Cameron Green and Jofra Archer who were put under the pump as all of them conceded more than 40 runs in their quota of overs.
The experienced Piyush Chawla and his spin bowling colleague Hrithik Shokeen, however, have been on the money as they restricted the flow of runs, with the former snapping two wickets as well.
MI's batting unit has looked formidable with the top and middle order being among runs.
While Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan have given a good start to the team on most occasions, Suryakumar Yadav's return to form is a big positive for MI, who have been served well by the overseas duo of Cameron Green and Tim David.
In fact, Green and Suryakumar had almost won them the match against Punjab Kings with a 36-ball 75-run stand before being done in by Arshdeep Singh's magical overs at the death.
Things are not going to be any easier for the MI batters as the Titans too possess a strong bowling attack.
Criticised for not being able to defend totals this season, Titans showed how to do it with a master class at the death overs to strangle Lucknow Super Giants' in a low-scoring contest.
The star of Titans' bowling was comeback man Mohit Sharma, who walked away with the player of the match award after using his variations to telling effect against the Lucknow side.
Titans were in a dire situation with LSG cruising at 105/1 in 14 overs while chasing 136 but the bowlers, led by Mohit, denied them as he defended 12 runs in the final over.
While Mohit has been a revelation, veteran Mohammed Shami too has been among the wickets. However, skipper Hardik Pandya hasn't really fired with the ball, having picked up only one wicket so far.
Led by Rashid Khan, Gujarat's spin department looks potent with fellow Afghan wrist spinner Noor Ahmad and Jayant Thakur delivering under pressure against LSG.
If Jayant conceded just seven in his last two overs, Noor took two wickets for just five runs in his final two overs to set up the win for Titans the other day.
Titans' batters have chased down totals but they have been sometimes guilty of not being able to push the score in middle overs.
While Wriddhiman Saha and Shubman Gill have scored runs at the top and Hardik top-scored in their last match, Titans were about 10-15 runs short against LSG, mainly due to their slow batting in middle overs, something the team will need to address.
Also, Titans might need to give their top overseas batter David Miller more time in the middle by promoting him up the order.
Squads:
Gujarat Titans: Hardik Pandya (captain), Srikar Bharat, Alzarri Joseph, Josh Little, Abhinav Manohar, David Miller, Mohammed Shami, Darshan Nalkande, Noor Ahmad, Urvil Patel, Rashid Khan, Wriddhiman Saha (w/k), R Sai Kishore, Sai Sudharsan, Pradeep Sangwan, Dasun Shanaka, Vijay Shankar, Mohit Sharma, Shivam Mavi, Shubman Gill, Odean Smith, Rahul Tewatia, Matthew Wade, Jayant Yadav, Yash Dayal.
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (captain), Suryakumar Yadav, Tim David, Dewald Brevis, Tilak Varma, Ishan Kishan (w/k), Tristan Stubbs, Vishnu Vinod, Cameron Green, Arjun Tendulkar, Ramandeep Singh, Shams Mulani, Riley Meredith Nehal Wadhera, Hrithik Shokeen, Arshad Khan, Duan Jansen, Piyush Chawla, Kumar Kartikeya, Raghav Goyal, Jofra Archer, Jason Behrendorff, Akash Madhwal.
Match starts: 7.30 pm IST.
