The Mumbai Indians began their IPL 11 campaign on a losing note against the Chennai Super Kings. They were in control of proceedings for the majority of the game.
However, Dwayne Bravo had other ideas. He went on to smash a brilliant 30 balls 68 which ensured CSK chased the total down with one delivery to go. It was an injured Kedar Jadhav who completed the job with a four and a six of the final over of Mustafizur Rahman.
Mumbai is known to be slow starters before they start coming back strong and push the oppositions on the backfoot. Their opponents today, Hyderabad will be aware of the fact and will look to ensure that Rohit Sharma and Co. don’t get a win under their belt so early on in the tournament.
The orange army and the Blue brigade lock horns at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium for the 7th match of the tournament.
Windies all-rounder Carlos Brathwaite who is a part of the Hyderabad squad said Mumbai are wounded beasts.
“Mumbai Indians are coming off a first game loss, and they will be looking to bounce back. We need to make sure that it’s not us that they get redemption from. They are wounded and slow starters, but we need to be wary of the wounded beasts,” Brathwaite was quoted as saying by the Mid-Day.
The all-rounder played for the Delhi Daredevils last year. Brathwaite is remembered for his four consecutive sixes of Ben Stokes in the final of the ICC World Twenty20 2016 at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Brathwaite said Mumbai has plenty of match winners. He believes Hyderabad must certainly take this fact into account.
“Mumbai has a lot of depth, so they are never really out of the game per say. Rohit is not the only key wicket. If you look down the order, there’s Kieron Pollard, Ishan Kishan, the Pandya brothers, so there are a lot of match winners. Mumbai’s strength is that they bat deep and there’s power in that playing XI,” Brathwaite said.
He further added that today’s encounter would be a contest between solid Hyderabad bowling attack against a strong Mumbai batting line-up.
Hyderabad in the absence of David Warner has been bolstered by the brilliant performance from Shikhar Dhawan in the opening match. It was his unbeaten knock of 77 which helped SRH chase the total down against the Royals with 26 deliveries to spare.
Brathwaite further added Dhawan should continue doing what he does best which is to bat aggressively.
“Dhawan has been successful for Hyderabad and India. He should continue to be aggressive which he been doing for the last few years,” said Brathwaite.
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