Big picture: Mumbai gunning for final playoff spot
Mumbai Indians slipped up in their previous match in Lucknow and face a crunch game against Sunrisers Hyderabad to make a late dash into the playoffs. The good news for them is that they are back at home for their last league game, and the Wankhede has been a fortress for them this season.
They have won four out of six home matches so far, chasing down totals of 186, 213 and 200. Should they beat Sunrisers on Sunday afternoon, they will finish this season with their best record at the Wankhede. Mumbai's batters - and Suryakumar Yadav in particular - have been awesome at home, and Mumbai will bank on them against the bottom-placed Sunrisers.
Mumbai must win to have a hope of finishing in the top four, and even then they will need Gujarat Titans to do them a favour and beat Royal Challengers Bangalore later on Sunday evening. If net run-rate come into the picture, Mumbai might struggle to make it, unless they beat Sunrisers by a huge margin.
Sunrisers were the second team to be eliminated from contention for the playoffs, and need a win to try and avoid finishing last this season. When these two teams met earlier this season, Mumbai won by 14 runs.
The big question
Recent results
Mumbai Indians: LWWLW (Last five matches, most recent first)
Sunrisers Hyderabad: LLLWL
Team news: Tilak Varma still doubtful
Tilak Varma has missed Mumbai's last four matches with injury and faces a fitness test on the eve of the game. Sunrisers should have all players available for selection.
Impact player strategy
Mumbai Indians
Vishnu Vinod is likely to start if Mumbai are batting first, or come on as the Impact Player to replace Akash Madhwal if they bowl first. However, if Varma is fit, he could play instead of Vinod.
Mumbai Indians (Probable XII) 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Ishan Kishan (wk), 3 Suryakumar Yadav, 4 Nehal Wadhera, 5 Tim David, 6 Vishnu Vinod, 7 Cameron Green, 8 Chris Jordan, 9 Hrithik Shokeen/Kumar Kartikeya, 10 Piyush Chawla, 11 Jason Behrendorff, 12 Akash Madhwal
Sunrisers Hyderabad
Sunrisers might stick with the same team that played against RCB. T Natarajan will start and be subbed off for a batter if they bowl first, and vice versa. However, it remains to be seen if Umran Malik returns; he could come in place of Nitish Kumar Reddy.
Sunrisers Hyderabad (Probable XII) 1 Abhishek Sharma, 2 Rahul Tripathi, 3 Aiden Markram (capt), 4 Heinrich Klaasen (wk), 5 Harry Brook, 6 Glenn Phillips, 7 Abdul Samad, 8 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 9 Kartik Tyagi, 10 Mayank Dagar, 11 Nitish Kumar Reddy/Umran Malik, 12 T Natarajan
Stats that matter
Tim David, Mumbai's finisher, has an excellent record against Natarajan, who is one of Sunrisers' death-overs specialists. David has faced 16 deliveries from Natarajan in two games, and hit him for 47 runs without being dismissed.
Sunrisers have won just two of their 11 games at Wankhede.
The match could turn out to be a six-fest. The 124 sixes hit at Wankhede so far is the most at any venue this season.
Quotes
"It's just another game for us. Yes from outside it looks like it's a big game and we have to wait for other results, et cetera, but we know what we have been doing here at Wankhede in the last four-five games. So we know our strengths. So we will back that and focus on that."
Suryakumar Yadav is confident going into Mumbai Indians' final home game.
