Mumbai Indians have had the reputation of being slow starters in the IPL and in previous editions faced a torrid time going into the final stages of the IPL. Last year, Mumbai Indians had a mixed start to the IPL and after 5 games, they won two and lost 3. But the year before they had a worse record as they could not win a single game and lost five on the trot. However, in this edition, they have turned things around and won four and lost just one.(Results | Fixtures | Points Table) Going by the numbers if Mumbai Indians can win the next four matches out of their 9 remaining games at hand then they can very well qualify for the playoff round of the IPL. The number of points needed to qualify for the eliminators is 16. Interestingly in the past two seasons of the IPL, teams placed 2nd, 3rd and 4th have all been tied on 16 points and have thereby qualified for the eliminators. Mumbai have been in incredible form this season. However, there were a few issues that they still had to address. Concerns were mounting over Rohit Sharma's form. However, the Mumbai-lad played a fluent knock of 40 in 29 deliveries to guide the team home and laid all concerns to rest. What has also contributed to Mumbai's success is that in each of their wins so far, the Pandya brothers have played a crucial role. They have become the x-factor of the home team. MI will hope Krunal and Hardik can continue doing that in this game as well. Another player who has risen to the occasion is Nitish Rana who can be deemed as the find of the season so far. Two half-centuries in the tournament has helped him become the highest run-scorer (193) ahead of Gautam Gambhir (182) The bowling too has come good with a lethal combination of Lasith Malinga and Jasprit Bumrah. Added to that is the resurgence of Harbhajan Singh. The 'turbanator' has taken the responsibility of bowling in the powerplay and has also chipped in with crucial wickets Conceding less than six runs per over, the veteran offspinner is showing why is he still one of the best in the game. The extra bounce on the red-soil pitch at Wankhede helped him bowl his variations.The fact that he loves to bowl here can be gauged from the fact that he has picked up 51 wickets at the Wankhede, which is the most by an Indian bowler at a venue. Meanwhile, the power hitters in Mumbai's batting unit comprising of Kieron Pollard, Parthiv Patel and Jos Buttler have kept Mumbai's batting unit powerful as usual as they hold the ability to single-handedly win matches. The main challenge though for Mumbai, will be how to get to stitch together a settled playing eleven and not tweak too much with the side. They have changed their squads in the earlier editions of the tournament and it has backfired on them. It has been seen on earlier occasions how Mumbai has failed to gather a winning momentum and more often than not they succumb to the pressure which resulted in failures. Fortunately, this time around the scenario has changed for the good and it seems that they might soon be the first team to make it to the playoffs.
