Preview: Sunrisers Hyderabad look to stay in playoff race as leaders Mumbai Indians come calling

Stung by successive losses, Sunrisers Hyderabad will look to turn the ship around and inch closer to a playoff berth when they face table-toppers Mumbai Indians in a crucial match in Hyderabad on Monday.

The defending champions, currently fourth in the standings with 13 points, need to win their two remaining matches to completely seal their IPL 2017 playoffs berth.

Sunrisers had lost to Delhi Daredevils by six wickets in New Delhi, but what hurt them most was their 12-run loss to Rising Pune Supergiants at home on Saturday. It was their first home defeat of the season.

Mumbai Indians, on the other hand, have already qualified for the play-offs, but remains focused on getting the most from its remaining league games. Mumbai have been in sublime form and their massive 146-run win over Delhi Daredevils last night has only cemented their position at the top.

Time: 8 pm

Venue: Rajiv Gandhi Stadium, Hyderabad

TV: Sony Max, Sony Six, Sony ESPN and their HD Channels

Head-to-head since 2016

Played: 3

SRH: 2

MI: 1

Sunrisers Hyderabad

• Sunrisers Hyderabad have an unenviable record at home this season, having won five of their six matches at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium. They lost their first home game in their previous encounter against Rising Pune Supergiant.
• Sunrisers Hyderabad have used the opening pair of Shikhar Dhawan and David Warner for all their 11 games so far this season. They are the only team to have not tampered with their top-order.

“We have been playing good cricket thus far, and need to keep the momentum going and continue to work as hard as we can. Some games have been tough. There has been a bit of the dew factor. Things can be different from one game to another.”

- Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper David Warner.

Squad: David Warner (c), Tanmay Agarwal, Ricky Bhui, Bipul Sharma, Ben Cutting, Shikhar Dhawan, Eklavya Dwivedi, Moises Henriques, Deepak Hooda, Chris Jordan, Siddharth Kaul, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ben Laughlin, Abhimanyu Mithun, Mohammad Nabi, Mohammed Siraj, Mustafizur Rahman, Ashish Nehra, Naman Ojha (wk), Rashid Khan, Vijay Shankar, Barinder Sran, Pravin Tambe, Kane Williamson and Yuvraj Singh.

Mumbai Indians

• Mumbai have been happy travellers this season. They have the most away wins this season, winning four of their five away games.
• Rohit Sharma has not fared well against Sunrisers Hyderabad. He has a tally of 102 runs in nine encounters against SRH. His highest score against them is only 24.

“Result of our hard work over the last three four weeks, we have prepared well, we were clear in our minds. That clarity has been helping us.”

- Rohit Sharma on Mumbai’s successful run off late.

Squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Lendl Simmons, Mitchel Johnsohn, Mitchell McClenghan, Nitish Rana, Parthiv Patel, Saurabh Tiwary, Shreyas Gopal, Tim Southee, Lasith Malinga, Krunal Pandya, Keiron Pollard, Ambati Rayudu, Asela Gunaratne, Harbhajan Singh, Hardik Pandya, Jagdish Suchith, Jaspreet Bumrah, Jos Buttler, Karn Sharma and Vinay Kumar.