IPL 2021, Match 09, April 17th MI vs SRH, MA Chidambaram Stadium. Preview MI vs SRH in IPL 2021, head to head player stats, records of both Mumbai Indians and Sunrisers Hyderabad at this venue plus the best Dream11 predictions MI vs SRH.
Key match stats MI vs SRH preview
Venue
- Average first innings score at the MA Chidambaram : 163
- Average first innings winning score at MA Chidambaram: 173
- Average powerplay score at MA Chidambaram: 46
- All-time win % batting 1st vs batting 2nd: 61% / 38%
Find full venue stats and records here
Team form MI vs SRH preview
- MI – WL
- SRH – LL
- Previous meetings: IPL 2020, MI won by 34 runs and SRH won by 10 wickets
IPL 2021 MI vs SRH preview
This could be an entirely different preview had Mumbai Indians not have made a dramatic late fight back against KKR in their last match of IPL 2021. The defending champions have been far from their best so far this season and yet they managed to do what all great teams do and win while not putting in a top performance. You feel though that it is only a matter of time before they do connect the dots and we see MI really begin to dominate opposition in the way we know they can.
Meanwhile, at the time of writing this post, SRH are the only team to have lost their opening 2 fixtures of IPL 2021 and while it’s not quite panic stations just yet, a third straight defeat would seriously dent their hopes of making the playoffs for a 6th straight year. In both those matches you feel SRH have had opportunities to win but defeat in their last game against RCB where they seemed to be on course for victory before a mini collapse will really have stung the men in orange. You’d expect a reaction in the game from the senior players in the SRH squad so this could be a fascinating watch.
As we preview the 2021 match SRH vs MI, let’s take a moment to consider the recent meetings between 2 squads that are largely unchanged from last season’s IPL. Mumbai Indians won the initial game thanks to a typical MI batting performance with a strong foundation laid by the top order before some big hitting later on. The 2nd match which came at the end of the season is probably a bit of red herring as MI choose to rest several key players particularly from the bowling attack given that a top 2 place was guaranteed. That allowed SRH to rack up a 10 wicket win and essentially booked their own playoff spot but I doubt that MI will be quite so generous today!
MI vs SRH preview head to head stats
MI bowling vs SRH batting
Here’s a fun fact to kick of our head to head preview of MI vs SRH! David Warner has never been dismissed in the IPL by any of Mumbai Indians likely bowling attack for this match. That includes Bumrah, Boult, Chahar, the 2 Pandyas and Kieron Pollard and of course he’s never faced Marco Jansen before.
SRH will certainly be looking to their captain to lead from the front again in this game but they can also draw heart from the fact that the remainder of their top 4 (Saha, Pandey and Bairstow) all have excellent IPL records against left-arm seam bowling and they are likely to face a significant number of overs of that should Boult and Jansen play together again.
Equally though, the absence of left-handers in the SRH middle order is a real cause for concern particularly against a bowler a canny as Krunal Pandya. The left-armer has the best economy rate of any bowler so far in IPL 2021 (min 30 balls bowled) and has bowled more dot balls than any other spinner in the IPL so far. While he might not be a major wicket taking option for MI, it is often the control on the scoring that he exerts in the middle overs that leads to chances for his more attacking colleagues at the other end.
If Warner is out early then I’d expect Krunal to suffocate this right-handed SRH middle order in what could be a potentially match winning performance. I guess the only question for MI having seen the way the SRH middle order capitulated against Shabaz Ahmed would then be do they opt to double up and bring in young Anukul Roy as another slow left-arm option? Roy, part of the U-19 World Cup winning squad, has made just 1 previous appearance in the IPL at this venue back in 2019.
Equally could SRH look to counter the threat by selecting Abishek Sharma or Shreevats Goswami to mix-up their right-hand / left-hand combinations a little? Let’s wait and see…
SRH bowling vs MI batting
During the preview of SRH’s previous match in IPL 2021, we touched on the fact that Sandeep Sharma has an excellent record against Virat Kohli and we can say the same for his head to head vs Rohit Sharma (dismissed 4 times in the IPL). With no swing on evidence in the opening defeat to KKR it made sense to drop Sandeep and replace him with a left-arm spinner to account for RCB’s middle order that is dominated by right-handers. Given his record against Rohit and indeed the MI top 4 as a whole then SRH may be tempted to bring him back in for this fixture.
Looking further down the order, SRH also have favourable match-ups against the big hitters that MI posses. Not many people can restrict the scoring of Hardik Pandya but Rashid Khan seems to have the Indian star simply looking to survive against him as his head to head record shows.
Equally, Buvi has provided Kieron Pollard problems throughout their many years as opponents in the IPL.
In general MI have played themselves into some decent positions during their first couple of IPL 2021 matches before struggling towards the back end of the innings. Partly that is a result of the slowness of the Chennai surface (the average last 5 over score is 49 runs for the 4 matches played so far in IPL 2021) but equally the Mumbai Indian’s lower order isn’t quite firing on all cylinders yet. Scores of 31 and 38 in the final 5 overs of their matches so far underline this point and if SRH can restrict them again in such a manner then they will be in with a chance.
