Pitch Stats – Rajiv Gandhi Stadium
Average first innings score: 158
Average first innings winning score: 170
Average powerplay score: 46
Win % batting 1st vs batting 2nd: 46% / 53%
Team form SRH vs MI
SRH: WWLL
MI: WWLL
Recent meetings: IPL 2022 - SRH won by 3 runs
The prospects for both of these sides are suddenly looking significantly better following back to back wins and whichever side makes it 3 in a row, will find themselves level on points with 2nd place, albeit with a bit of work to do on their net run rate following heavy defeats earlier in the campaign.
The Sunrisers suddenly appear to have found a formula with their batsmen that works. Prior to the win over KKR, SRH were averaging a powerplay score of less than 40 and looking short of the necessary runs to regularly win games.
Abhishek Sharma who had a decent 2022 season was ditched after the first game as the Sunrisers looked for alternatives to partner Agarwal at the top of the innings. They eventually settled on Harry Brook and his century last time out provided the back bone for the highest innings total of the IPL season to date.
Brook vs pace and Agarwal vs spin T20 career batting stats
During that innings, we did witness that Brook is far more comfortable attacking pace bowling than spin but with Agarwal at the crease that doesn't need to be a major concern for SRH and the 2 compliment each other nicely at the top of the order.
Moving Brook to open has also allowed Hyderabad to reinsert Abhishek Sharma into their middle order and solve a problem that was highlight in a previous post about the franchise's lack of left-handers.
Abhishek's cameo of 32 from 17 was scored almost exclusively against the spinners. In fact, the only legal delivery he faced from a pace bowler was the one that got him out! The knock came at a time when Brook's scoring had slowed and was probably the difference between Sunrisers posting a score of 228 compared to something around the 210 mark which may have given KKR a sniff of victory.
Abhishek Sharma T20 career batting stats vs spin bowling
If you are a glass half-empty kind of a fan then you might argue that Mumbai's recent wins have both come against weak opposition in the form of bottom placed Delhi and a KKR side who apart from a few magnificent individual performances, haven't looked like a coherent team.
Still, you can only beat what's in front of you and MI are doing so with a threadbare bowling attack that you feel will be tested by better teams in the near future, including in today's match.
What will please MI is that all of their top 4, which is where the real experience and class can be found, are starting to find a bit of form. Ishan Kishan recorded his first 50 of the tournament while Suryakumar Yadav spent some much needed time at the crease against KKR having recorded just 16 runs in his previous 6 innings in all formats, a period which had seen him dismissed for a duck on 4 occasions.
The Rajiv Gandhi has provided a couple of low scoring innings in the matches featured here so far. Rajasthan Royals did make 200+ in the opening game but that looked well in advance of a par score once SRH had worked out that the best way to bowl on this surface was into the pitch with lots of cutters. Do Mumbai have the bowling attack with the experience and quality to work that out?
MI bowling vs SRH batting
It'll certainly be a test for the relatively inexperienced Tendulkar, Green and Duan Jansen to bowl at the inform Brook who took the the likes of Lockie Ferguson and Umesh Yadav to the cleaners at Eden Gardens.
If they both play, the Jansens (Duan and Marco) will follow in the footsteps of the Pandyas, Husseys, Currans, Marshes and Pathans as brothers who have played against one another in the IPL.
From the very young, to the very old, Piyush Chawla is one of several former stars including the likes of Amit Mishra and Mohit Sharma who have found their way back into the IPL after a lengthy period without a franchise.
Piyush Chawla IPL bowling stats at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium
Chawla has both the experience more generally but also at this ground to be a real key bowler for Mumbai. Mayank Markande and Yuzvendra Chahal took 4 wicket hauls in the first 2 games played at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium this year so the leg-spinners on both sides could well be a key factor to deciding the outcome. Chawla also has an excellent head to head against Tripathi and Agarwal both of whom he's dismissed twice before in T20 cricket
Chawla T20 head to head vs Tripathi and Agarwal
SRH bowling vs MI batting
I'm sure SRH's seamers will have an opening burst with the new ball but if they can't make the kind of in roads that they did against PBKS last time they played here, then expect them to give Washington Sundar a bowl early on.
It might seem like a risk against Rohit Sharma, especially given that Washington was smashed about by Jos Buttler in the powerplay early in the season, but he does have a very good head to head record against Mumbai's captain. If there is a longer boundary to get Rohit to hit towards then Washington's pace and height make him a difficult man to slog into the leg-side as Rohit keeps discovering...
Washington Sundar all T20 dismissals vs Rohit Sharma
The match-up would also be favorable against Ishan Kishan who is scoring at a strike rate of exactly 100 from the 40 deliveries he's faced to date from Washington.
Where SRH may be a little more concerned is with their death bowling options. Umran Malik and Marco Jansen have been particularly expensive when asked to bowl at the back end of innings, leaving the old pros in Bhuvi and Natarajan to shoulder the burden.
Bhuvi and Natarajan combined T20 head to head vs Tim David
That won't however phase MI's primary finisher in the form of Tim David who has enjoyed smashing both of them to all parts of the ground in previous T20 meetings.
All stats used in this blog are from my own databases which are freely accessible below
IPL head to head player stats
IPL player stats by venue
IPL stadium statistics.
Images are my own with the exception of player profiles and highlights within GIFs which are not intended to infringe copyright- read full disclaimer. Background images are used under a creative commons license or otherwise royalty free.
