Match 16: Mumbai Indians vs Gujarat Lions at Mumbai, Apr 16, 2017
Wankhede Stadium ( Capacity 50,000)
Sunday, 16th April
16:00 hrs IST
Rohit Sharma-led Mumbai Indians (MI) look to continue their fruitful journey against Gujarat Lions (GL) as the two teams lock horns in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2017 Match 16. To be played at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, the first of Sunday’s double-header is a chance for the hosts to maintain their dominance in the points table while Suresh Raina’s GL will have to pull up their socks and produce a near-flawless performance to snatch victory from MI. The hosts are currently at second position in the points table while GL are second from bottom, ironically.
Team News:
The Mumbai Indians’ top-order failed in the previous match against the Royal Challengers Bangalore, but they still found match-winners in Kieron Pollard and Krunal Pandya. Lasith Malinga missed the last game but is likely to be fit for this encounter. The Sri Lankan pacer will in all probability replace Tim Southee who was expensive in Bengaluru. One area of concern for Mumbai is the form of captain Rohit Sharma and there are calls for him to open the batting. If that’s the case, then we could see Jos Buttler moving into the middle-order.
The Gujarat Lions finally got their combination right in the match against Rising Pune Supergiant. Previously having played four foreign batsmen, the inclusion of Andrew Tye proved to be the big difference as the Australian fast bowler picked up a five-wicket haul (including a hat-trick) on his IPL debut. Having gone for a fair deal of runs in the previous match, one expects Praveen Kumar to miss out on this game with Dhawal Kulkarni likely to come back into the side.
Ideal Playing XI
Mumbai Indians: Parthiv Patel (wk), Jos Buttler, Rohit Sharma (c), Nitish Rana, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Hardik Pandya, Harbhajan Singh, Mitchell McClenaghan, Jasprit Bumrah, Tim Southee
Gujarat Lions:: Dwyane Smith, Brendon McCullum, Suresh Raina (c), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Aaron Finch, Ishan Kishan, Ravindra Jadeja, Praveen Kumar, Basil Thampi, Andrew Tye, Shadab Jakati
Match prediction: The game is balanced but the form and local factor is in favor of the Mumbai Indians and gives them a slight edge.