IPL 2022 MI vs SRH - Can Mumbai's late charge to avoid the wooden spoon continue?

Key match stats MI vs SRH

Pitch Stats – Wankhede Stadium

Average first innings score: 166
Average first innings winning score: 183
Average powerplay score: 42
Win % batting 1st vs batting 2nd: 41% / 59%

Team form MI vs SRH

MI – WLWWL
SRH – LLLLL
Recent meetings: IPL 2021 - MI won by 42 runs, MI won by 13 runs

MI vs SRH Preview

If all Mumbai are playing for is pride then they're doing a pretty good job of late!

They ran riot in their last fixture here at the Wankhede to destroy old rivals CSK and set up a very real chance of not finishing bottom and claiming the wooden spoon for the first time in their illustrious IPL history.

This will be only the 3rd season in the history of the IPL that Mumbai have failed to win at least 50% of their matches in the round robin

At the very least, Mumbai can also look back at a season where a few youngsters have presented themselves as viable options going forward.

Chief amongst them is Tilak Varma who alongside Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan and Sky gives Mumbai a high quality core of Indian players in the top 4 to build on for next season and Mumbai will also hope that they have unearthed the kind of mystery spinner that can get them wickets throughout the innings in the form of Kartikeya Singh.

Ahead of the match against CSK, Kartikeya had already shown an ability to dismiss top order players in the first half of the innings by knocking over capped batsmen Sanju Samson, Venkatesh Iyer and Ajinke Rahane before he returned to throw cold water on the hopes of a CSK revival by dismissing Dwayne Bravo and mopping up the tail late in the innings.

Meanwhile, SRH continued their slide with a 5th successive defeat cancelling out their 5 consecutive wins they managed prior to that. Most concerning for the Sunrisers management will be the fact that the margins of defeat are only getting bigger from the time that lost a top of the table clash against Gujarat Titans on the last ball to their 2 most recent losses against RCB and KKR that have been beaten by 67 and 54 runs respectively.

Pre-tournament, no one was picking SRH as a team to reach the playoffs and most would have assumed they would be nearer the bottom. Mathematically, they are still in with a chance of reaching the top 4 but the chances are so slim that they don't warrant talking about.

Pre-season, I think if you'd have told Tom Moody and Kane Williamson that their fairly young and unfancied side would still have a chance (no matter how remote) of finishing in the top 4 with 2 games to play, they'd probably have taken it but at the same time they'll want to win at least one of their remaining games in order to give the team a lift ahead of the close season.

It will however be a difficult task for this Sunrisers team who have lost both their matches at the Wankhede this season and in general have a poor recent record against Mumbai Indians having been defeated in 5 of their last 6 matches against them.

MI vs SRH head to head

SRH bowling vs MI batting

We know that the Wankhede usually offers pace and bounce not to mention a little bit of lateral movement early on for the quick bowlers and Sunrisers will be hoping that their impressive seam attack can make use of that today.

Umran Malik became the first seamer to claim a 5 wicket haul in the IPL at the Wankhede

At the same time, the trueness of the surface and relatively short boundaries mean that when bowlers get in wrong they can get hit around the park. The inexperienced Umran Malik knows this all too well having delivered a spell of 5 for 25 (an IPL record at the Wankhede for a seamer) before then being hit for 25 off 2 wicketless overs against RCB.

Of course, despite their excellent performance with the ball against CSK, Mumbai continue to look frail with the bat. When you factor in the end of their unsuccessful chase against KKR and the start of their innings vs Chennai then Mumbai managed to lose 10 wickets in less than 15 overs for the addition of just 77 runs! Another collapse for them seems only around the corner...

Bhuvi vs Rohit Sharma T20 head to head

With Pollard dropped and Sky out injured this inexperienced MI batting line-up could really do with their captain playing an innings of substance and if he can once again survive the opening burst from Bhuvi then perhaps this is the time for Rohit to make a serious contribution.

MI bowling vs SRH batting

Rohit of course isn't the only captain struggling with form this season with Kane Williamson joining a long and undistinguished list of skippers who have struggled to lead their sides and meet their personal expectations for success in IPL 2022.

His record at the Wankhede isn't great with a career average of 21.6 here but his duel against Jasprit Bumrah could be crucial and if SRH can resist MI's champion then we've seen throughout the tournament that they may get opportunities to target the rest of the Mumbai attack.

Bumrah vs Williamson T20 head to head - No batsmen currently playing in the IPL has faced 50 or more deliveries and not been dismissed at least once by Bumrah in T20 cricket

Of course if Mumbai remain confident that their other seam options can do the damage up front, as they did against CSK, then they'll likely hold Bumrah back for some overs later on and he'll get to bowl against the likes of Nicolas Pooran who he has had significantly greater success against in the past.

Bumrah vs Pooran T20 head to head

At the point that I previewed, SRH's game against GT, a match that they went into on the back of a 5 game winning streak, they had the best run rate at the death of any side in IPL 2022. However, during the proceeding 5 games that record has changed dramatically and they are now one of 3 teams alongside PBKS and KKR whose run-rate in the final 5 overs is sub 10.

Death overs run-rates for all teams in IPL 2022

Given how we've seen scores develop at the Wankhede this season with slower starts generally being compensated by faster scoring in the 2nd half of innings then SRH really need to return to form in that part of the game if they are going to arrest their slump against Mumbai today.

All stats used in this blog are from my own database which is freely accessible at T20 head to head. Images are my own with the exception of player profiles and background images which are used under a creative commons license or otherwise royalty free