It’s the local Maharashtra Derby yet again – Mumbai Indians take on Rising Pune Supergiant. Mumbai Indians are first on the points table and Rising Pune Supergiant have done well to reach fifth.
The last time the two rivals played earlier this month, Rising Pune Supergiant won easily. Steven Smith hit a match winning knock and Imran Tahir justified his position as the #1 ranked T20 bowler in the world. Since then the Mumbai side has gone from strength to strength while Pune have had their ups and downs.
Still, Rising Pune have a 2-1 win record against their great rivals. They won their last match by beating Sunrisers Hyderabad by six wickets, thanks to an M S Dhoni special, also beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by 27 runs before that.
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However, they lost to Gujarat Lions by seven wickets.
As for Mumbai Indians, they have won all of their recent games, having beaten Delhi Daredevils by 14 runs, Kings XI Punjab by eight wickets and Gujarat Lions by six wickets.
For this game, Lasith Malinga is expected to miss out because of an illness. He missed the game against Delhi Daredevils but his replacement Mitchell Johnson was more than adequate, bowling fast and in control throughout his spell, serving as an ideal foil to his strike partner Mitchell McClenaghan.
The Mumbai line-up is a settled one with everyone contributing something to the cause, with the star players so far this season being Nitish Rana and the Pandya brothers, Krunal and Hardik.
Pune have been doing well recently and Dhoni’s return to form augurs well for them. It remains to be seen whether the South African captain Faf du Plessis will get a game for the Pune side, with the two overseas batting slots in the top order already taken by Steven Smith and Ben Stokes.
The Teams
Mumbai Indians: 1 Jos Buttler, 2 Parthiv Patel (wk), 3 Nitish Rana, 4 Rohit Sharma (capt), 5 Kieron Pollard, 6 Krunal Pandya, 7 Hardik Pandya, 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 Mitchell Johnson/Lasith Malinga, 10 Mitchell McClenaghan, 11 Jasprit Bumrah
Rising Pune Supergiant: 1 Ajinkya Rahane, 2 Rahul Tripathi, 3 Steven Smith (capt), 4 MS Dhoni (wk), 5 Ben Stokes, 6 Manoj Tiwary, 7 Dan Christian, 8 Washington Sundar/Rahul Chahar, 9 Shardul Thakur, 10 Jaydev Unadkat/Ankit Sharma, 11 Imran Tahir
Watch Mumbai Indians take on Rising Pune Supergiant tonight at 8 PM live on Sony Six!
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