IPL 2013 Preview: Complacency the enemy forMumbai Indians against Sunrisers Hyderabad

Sunrisers Hyderabad will bank on home conditions and support after slumping to two straight defeats prior to this encounter © IANS

By Jaideep Vaidya
 
Hyderabad: Apr 30, 2013
 
Buoyed by three back-to-back wins, the Mumbai Indians will be high on confidence when they make the trip to the south eastern city of Hyderabad to face the Sunrisers in the Indian Premier League (IPL) on May 1.
 
In the corresponding fixture last season, the Mumbai Indians had scraped through to a last-ball win chasing 139 against the erstwhile Deccan Chargers, thanks mainly to a 50-ball 79 from Rohit Sharma. The 26-year-old, who took over from Ricky Ponting as captain, is in the form of his life in this season, hitting three half-centuries, and Hyderabad would do well to prepare themselves for another onslaught.
 
The other Mumbai batsmen Hyderabad would need to guard themselves against are the explosive opener Dwayne Smith and the superhuman athlete Kieron Pollard, who are capable of grabbing the match away from the opposition with their brute power. Dinesh Karthik has also had a couple of poor outings with the bat after starting the season brightly, and would like to get some runs under the belt. 
 
On their day, the Mumbai Indians look a complete team with enough performers and match-winners in all departments. However, they have failed to show the same consistency as, say, the Chennai Super Kings. Mumbai can go from ecstasy to doldrums at the drop of a hat, and would do well to not get complacent following a hat-trick of wins. The last time that happened this season, Mumbai lost consecutive games badly to the Rajasthan Royals and the Delhi Daredevils. 
 
Hyderabad will bank on home conditions and support after slumping to two straight defeats prior to this encounter. After starting the season in a high note, the tournament’s newest franchise find themselves out of the top four, and that would mainly be due to their batting.
 
The Sunrisers have tried various combinations in their top six, but are yet to find a single consistent performer. They have relied upon individuals to come to their rescue, and do not look like a cohesive batting unit. Captain Kumar Sangakkara brought himself back in the eleven against the Rajasthan Royals after dropping out for a few games, but failed to produce the runs again. Hyderabad slumped to 29 for six, before Darren Sammy buoyed them out of deep waters to post 144. At the end, it wasn’t a good enough total for their strong bowling line-up to defend.
 
The hosts could think of getting Parthiv Patel back in the mixture after Quinton de Kock and Sangakkara both having failed. Mumbai are likely to field an unchanged side.
 
Teams: 
 
Sunrisers Hyderabad (Probable): Shikhar Dhawan, Parthiv Patel, Hanuma Vihari, Cameron White, Darren Sammy, Thisara Perera, Ashish Reddy, Karan Sharma, Amit Mishra, Dale Steyn, Ishant Sharma.
 
Mumbai Indians (Probable): Dwayne Smith, Sachin Tendulkar, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Rohit Sharma (c), Kieron Pollard, Ambati Rayudu, Harbhajan Singh, Mitchell Johnson, Lasith Malinga, Pragyan Ojha, Dhawal Kulkarni.
 
Time: 16.00 IST | 10.30 GMT

(Jaideep Vaidya is a multiple sports buff and a writer at CricketCountry. He has a B.E. in Electronics Engineering, but that isn’t fooling anybody. He started writing on sports during his engineering course and fell in love with it. The best day of his life came on April 24, 1998, when he witnessed birthday boy Sachin Tendulkar pummel a Shane Warne-speared Aussie attack from the stands during the Sharjah Cup Final. A diehard Manchester United fan, you can follow him on Twitter @jaideepvaidya. He also writes a sports blog – The Mullygrubber )