IPL 2024 MI v SRH Preview - Guess the surface!

Key match stats

Pitch Stats – Wankhede Stadium IPL records

Wankhede Stadium Pitch report from the 10 most recent IPL matches played

Team form MI vs SRH
MI: WLLLL
SRH: WWLLW

Recent meetings: SRH won by 31 runs

Weather

General Forecast: Dry and Clear
Chance of dew: High

Preview MI vs SRH

What kind of pitch will we get at the Wankhede tonight?

From some of the absolute roads that we saw just a couple of weeks ago, the tournament's pitch curators appear to have changed approach and are preparing some very spicy surfaces. The pitch for the game here against KKR was a little on the slow side and a similar surface for this match would certainly not be conducive to the run fest we saw the last time these 2 sides met.

On that occassion SRH smashed a then record 277 in their 20 overs while MI gave it a pretty good go in reaching 246 in reply. I suspect that neither of the bowling attacks particularly want to get hammered about in that fashion again but I'd question whether a slow surface is really advantageous to Mumbai.

MI's batsmen looked particularly poor in the defeat to KKR. Bear in mind this was a Kolkata side without Harshit Rana and with Andre Russell forced to bowl his full allotment of 4 overs due to the introduction of Manish Pandey as the impact sub.

The Mumbai top order then failed to adapt to the conditions despite getting to bat 2nd. Even once MI's batsmen had worked out that there was little pace in the surface, they still managed to lose the crucial wickets of Sky and Tim David to full tosses. For Mumbai Indian fans this season is like a nightmare that they just can't wake up from!

In fact, you have to go back quite a while to find an IPL win for Mumbai that hasn't come in a high-scoring match. At the very start of the 2023 season they limped across the line chasing 172 against a poor DC side but since then, they've looked at their best on fast scoring pitches, particularly here at the Wankhede, where their batsmen can out hit opposition. It seems then that MI's pitch curation is as confused as their team selection this season.

SRH found value in the full-toss themselves to get a crucial win against RR last time out. Bhuvi's final delivery really should have been hit out of the ground by Rovman Powell who instead missed a straight one and ensured that Sunrisers weren't subjected to a 3rd loss in a row.

Sunrisers closest playoff rivals in CSK, LSG and KKR all play ahead of them on Sunday. SRH also know that this is their final away game of the season with the men in orange returning to Hyderabad for games against LSG, GT and PBKS to finish off the round robin. You'd think then that a win at this ground would put them in a very strong position to reach the playoffs for the first time since 2020.

Even if we do see another red soil surface at the Wankhede, I would expect both sides to favour chasing given the high probability that dew will impact the 2nd innings once again.

MI SRH head to head

SRH bowling vs MI batting

Pat Cummins has struggled on previous visits to the Wankhede stadium with just 2 wickets and an economy rate of 9.6 from the 12 overs he's bowled here in T20 cricket. However, he might fancy improving upon that record against this MI team.

Ishan Kishan head to head Cummins T20 cricket

As well as his fine record against Ishan Kishan, Cummins has also dismissed Rohit 3 times and Sky twice in previous T20 meetings. Now on 12 wickets for the season, Cummins is just 3 short of equalling his own personal best haul for IPL season (15) that he set back in 2017.

The one area of weakness for this Sunrisers attack continues to be the lack of a high quality frontline spinner. It looked like SRH had plugged that gap by bringing in Hasaranga at the auction but his unavailability has left them short. On some of the very batsmen friendly wickets we've seen in the first 6 weeks of the tournament it hasn't mattered as much but we are increasingly see pitches, including this one at the Wankhede, that offer some turn.

Mayank Markande IPL record at the Wankhede

Mayank Markande, who made his break through with Mumbai Indians in 2018, might well find himself back in contention if the same red soil track that was used against KKR is played on in this fixture. Markande took 6 wickets in his first 4 matches for MI at the Wankhede but has struck just twice in here in his last 4 appearances.

MI Bowling vs SRH batting

MI had KKR 57 for 5 in their last match but allowed them to get a competitive (ultimately winning) total. It was arguably MI's best bowling performance of the season to date with the early damage done by Pandya and Thushara. However, their struggles to take wickets and/or contain teams in the middle over period once against cost them.

MI middle over bowling record in IPL 2024

Where I think they got it wrong was by not looking to finish KKR off altogether! After the dismissal of Rinku Singh to the first ball of the 7th over, KKR faced a further 29 balls of consecutive spin from which they accumulated 34 fairly risk free runs. 2 of those overs were bowled by Naman Dhir, a bowler who has never taken an IPL wicket. Jasprit Bumrah who'd only bowled a single over up until that point, wasn't reintroduced into the attack until the 14th over, by which time both Venkatesh and Pandey were well set.

Klaasen head to head vs the current MI squad

SRH themselves recovered from a difficult start against Rajasthan who managed to subdue the Sunrisers aggressive opening pair early on. MI will therefore need to improve their tactics throughout the whole innings against an SRH side who have power hitters throughout their line-up who have already developed a taste for this attack.

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