The Indian Premier League has one match on Thursday with the IPL 2025 show rolling back into the Wankhede Stadium for the clash between the Mumbai Indians and the Sunrisers Hyderabad which is much bigger for both than they would want at this stage of the season.
Both of these teams are at the wrong end of the table by their pre-season expectations and in 12 matches between them they have a combined four wins but someone will move onto six points with a win here while the losers will need to catch fire in the second half of the campaign.
Mumbai Indians
The Mumbai Indians are no strangers to starting seasons slowly and coming good but you wonder if they have the strength in depth and quality at the key moments to give the field a bit of a head start and catch them up this time around. It has been a campaign of two defeats then a win and two defeats then a win for the Indians so while they carry winning form into this one with them, they need to find a way to make it successive wins else they will fall further away from the pace.
The big news for them in that last win over the Delhi Capitals, and they remain the only team in the competition who have beaten Delhi, is that their batters came to the party. Their middle order has always been their strength in the past and with those churning out runs at a quick rate in the last game that bodes well. Their bowlers are always going to struggle on this ground but the four overs of Jasprit Bumrah, which can often be a cheat code, could be the difference here.
Sunrisers Hyderabad
The Sunrisers Hyderabad went into the season as the favourites to win the tournament but they haven’t lived up to that billing over the course of the six games that they have played. They have won just two of them and with them hitting the halfway point of the season after this match they will be eager for a third win else they will probably have to win six of their last seven to make the finals such has been the size of a couple of the beatings that they have taken.
The key for the Sunrisers is their batting. When their blast everything out of the park strategy works then they are a very tough nut to crack. Their two wins have come with scores of 286/6 and 247/2 but there has only been one innings in the six that they have bowled where they have conceded fewer than 10 runs per over and that just isn’t sustainable because they don’t manage their batting particularly well and if scoreboard pressure is added into the mix then they could collapse in a heat as has happened a couple of times. It also means that they go harder than maybe they need to in order to get a score they feel they need to defend rather than post a slightly above par one.
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Key Players
Often against the Sunrisers Hyderabad the opening couple of overs sets the tone so if Jasprit Bumrah can get rid of one or both of the openers and get into this middle order then it should set Mumbai up to have a positive match.
After a really scratchy few matches, Abhishek Sharma produced one of the best innings the Indian Premier League has ever seen last time out when he smashed 141 off just 55 balls. That isn’t going to happen all the time but if he can just bat through the powerplay at that rate it would set Sunrisers on their way.
Betting
I think on this ground with these two batting units it would be a huge surprise if the sixes weren’t to flow. We have had two matches at the Wankhede this season with the sixes really flowing in the second game with 25 of them but even in the first match Kolkata Knight Riders made just 116 batting first and yet there were still 15 sixes in that match. You would imagine that sort of total will be the anomaly at this place rather than the normal so the other match is more the one to focus on here.
It took a while but the Mumbai batting has finally come up to speed. They have scored 190 in their last three batting innings and the one thing we know about the Sunrisers is if it is up it is off and if it isn’t up it will still be off if they can manage it. We’re only asking for 10 sixes from each side and one more on top and that really doesn’t feel like too tough an ask with the power on show in this one. This has all the makings of a serious run fest and so over 20.5 sixes, which is probably one above the line I would normally be comfortable taking but I’ll allow it given the power on show, looks a good bet to me.
Tips
Back Over 20.5 sixes for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with Boylesports
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