Mumbai Indians chase consistency; Supergiants seek winning finish at home

Falling down to fifth spot, owing to Sunrisers Hyderabad's victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore, Mumbai Indians see a familiar script unfolding. They will be hoping to take the momentum forward when they face off against Rising Pune Supergiants in their return leg of the Maharashtra derby on Sunday (May 1). The game will also mark the end of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2016 matches in Maharashtra.

The hosts, Supergiants, meanwhile, are yet to set the tournament alight, with injuries to key players and poor form of the bowlers, contributing to the position they find themselves in currently. With two wins out of seven games, Supergiants are languishing at the bottom half of the table, and unless they hit the straps soon, they might find it too hard to catch up.

There is not much to fault when it comes to Supergiants's batting as the likes of Ajinkya Rahane, Steven Smith and MS Dhoni have been in good touch and have made up for the absence of Kevin Pietersen and Faf du Plessis. However, the bowlers haven't complemented the fine batting efforts, which has meant that Smith's maiden Twenty20 ton against Gujarat Lions and three of Rahane's four half centuries have come in losing causes. The fact that Supergiants haven't been able to find a settled bowling line up has been hurting them for a few games now, and as Dhoni said, they 'need to crack the code quickly, else we will be on the receiving end' more times than not.

On the other hand, Mumbai Indians are now looking much more relaxed than they were at the start of the season, having hit upon the right combination. Rohit Sharma has been in good form, while Kieron Pollard's blistering knocks in the last few games come as a big boost. Jos Buttler is another key member but he hasn't quite made an impact yet, and Mumbai Indians will be hoping that he converts those promising starts to bigger scores. The bowlers too have mostly been on the mark and will be keen to continue in the same vein.

When: Rising Pune Supergiants vs Mumbai Indians, 29th Match - May 1, 8:00 PM ISTWhere: Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, PuneWhat to expect: A high of 31 degree Celsius. Dew hasn't been much of a factor in Pune and toss too hasn't been very crucial. But the last two games played here were won while chasing and the captain winning the toss might choose to bowl first again.

Team News:

Rising Pune Supergiants: The hosts skipped the practice session on Saturday, having played against Gujarat only the previous day. There is no update on whether Usman Khawaja has joined the Supergiants yet. It is also still unclear if Mitchell Marsh, who was ruled out of the previous game with an injury, will be available for selection.

Mumbai Indians: The defending champions do not have any injury concerns currently. Jerome Taylor, Lasith Malinga's replacement, has been with the team for a few days now but it is unlikely that he'll get a game any time soon as Mumbai Indians will not be looking to tinker with their winning combination.

Did you know?

- Rohit Sharma has scored 279 runs in four innings while chasing with four fifties in comparison to 19 runs while batting first the same number of times.

- Kieron Pollard needs two more sixes to become the second batsman after Chris Gayle (637 sixes) to hit 400 sixes in 20-over cricket.

- Supergiants have had nine fifty plus partnerships this season and eight of them involved either of the openers

Quotes:

We pretty much have to win most of our games from here on in, so hopefully we can turn the momentum around, get a few wins on the board in a streak and hopefully we'll go from there: Steven Smith.

This is the second half of the tournament and we're going to focus on just winning all our games. That's the way we want to play: Robin Singh.

Squads:

Rising Pune Supergiants: MS Dhoni (c & wk), Ankit Sharma, Baba Aparajith, Murugan Ashwin, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ankush Bains, Rajat Bhatia, Scott Boland, Deepak Chahar, Ashok Dinda, Peter Handscomb, Jaskaran Singh, Usman Khawaja, Mitchell Marsh, Albie Morkel, Ishwar Pandey, Irfan Pathan, Thisara Perera, Ajinkya Rahane, Ishant Sharma, RP Singh, Steven Smith, Saurabh Tiwary, Adam ZampaMumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (c), Corey Anderson, Jasprit Bumrah, Jos Buttler, Unmukt Chand, Marchant de Lange, Shreyas Gopal, Martin Guptill, Harbhajan Singh, Kishore Kamath, Siddhesh Lad, Mitchell McClenaghan, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Parthiv Patel, Kieron Pollard, Deepak Punia, Nitish Rana, Ambati Rayudu, Jitesh Sharma, Nathu Singh, Tim Southee, J Suchith, Jerome Taylor, R Vinay Kumar, Akshay Wakhare