SRH vs MI Match Preview- IPL 2024, Match 8

The SRH vs MI IPL 2024 match will be played in Hyderabad on Wednesday, March 27. This is the first home game for Sunrisers Hyderabad and the second away game on the trot for Mumbai Indians. 

Date and Venue

The SRH vs MI IPL 2024 match 8 will be played at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on March 27, Wednesday. The match starts at 7.30 pm IST. Both teams have four games each at the venue.

SRH vs MI Match Preview- IPL 2024, Match 8

Sunrisers Hyderabad 

Sunrisers Hyderabad almost chased down 209. They fell short by just four runs as they finished on 204. Heinrich Klaasen’s 63 off 29 balls almost won the game for SRh but Harshit Rna kept his cool in the final over defencing 12. The SRh bowlers went around the park conceding over 2000 runs. Heading into their first home game, in Hyderabad which is also a high-scoring venue, the bowlers will have their work cut out. 

SRH benched their overseas players Travis Head, Fazalhaq Farooqi, and Glenn Phillips in the previous game and played the likes of Cummins, Klassesn, Jansen, and Markram. Wanindu Hasaranga is yet to join the side. It will be interesting to see if he is drafted into the side immediately as he arrives. 

To speak about their batting unit, Klaasen showed his form with the bat in the very first game and his form is key to SRH’s success for the rest of the season. 

SRH Squad 

Pat Cummins (C), Abdul Samad, Abhishek Sharma, Aiden MarkramMarco Jansen, Rahul Tripathi, Washington Sundar, Glenn Phillips, Sanvir Singh, Heinrich Klaasen, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mayank Agarwal, T. Natarajan, Anmolpreet Singh, Mayank Markande, Upendra Singh Yadav, Umran Malik, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Shahbaz Ahmed, Travis Head, Wanindu Hasaranga, Jaydev Unadkat, Akash Singh, Jhathavedh Subramanyan

Also Read: Hardik Pandya was extremely poor as captain vs GT? Wasim Jaffer drops blunt verdict

Mumbai Indians 

MI failed to chase down 169 against Gujarat Titans in their first game. They needed 49 runs heading into the final five overs with almost six to seven wickets in hand. Hardik Pandya dropped himself to number seven in the batting order but he failed to take his team over the line.

Some of his decisions as a captain were heavily criticized. Not giving the first over to Jasprit Bumrah was one of the many controversial decisions that he took. Very traditionally. Mumbai Indians have started with a loss in 2013 but then went on to win five titles. 

Mumbai won five titles under Rohit Sharma, but now Hardik is the captain and he started with a loss. They will be playing their next game away from home and it will be interesting to see whether Hardik has learned from his mistakes in the previous game. Suryakumar Yadav missed the first game and there is no update on whether he will play the second game. 

MI Squad 

Hardik Pandya (C), Rohit Sharma, Dewald Brevis, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, N. Tilak Varma, Tim David, Vishnu Vinod, Arjun Tendulkar, Shams Mulani, Nehal Wadhera, Jasprit Bumrah, Kumar Kartikeya, Piyush Chawla, Akash Madhwal, Jason Behrendorff, Romario Shepherd, Gerald Coetzee, Dilshan Madushanka, Shreyas Gopal, Nuwan Thushara, Naman Dhir, Anshul Kamboj, Mohammad Nabi, Shivalik Sharma 

Key Battles 

Rohit Sharma vs Bhuvneshwar Kumar 

Rohit and Bhuvi will go head-to-head against each other in the match. Both very experienced in their respective jobs, will look to outdo each other in the contest. Interestingly, Bhuvi has dismissed Rohit just once in the IPL conceding 76 runs off 58 balls. 

Hardik Pandya vs T Natarjan 

Natarajan with his accurate yorkers will have to bowl to Hardik Pandya in the final overs. One is an established finisher while the other has mastered the art of death bowling. The pacer has never dismissed Pandya but has just given 23 runs in 15 balls. 

Heinrich Klaasen vs Piyush Chawla 

Klaasen pummelled the KKR spinners in the last game and almost won the match single-handedly for Sunrisers Hyderabad. He will be up against the likes of Piyush Chawal in the middle overs. Hardik should introduce Chawla to dismiss the big-hitter. 

Key Players

For SRH, Heinrich Klaasen Aiden Markram, Mayank Agarwal, and Abhishek Sharma are the key batters. With the ball, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Pat Cummins, T Natarajan, and Mayank Markande are key. 

For MI, skipper Hardik Pandya, Rohit Sharma, Tilak Varma, and Dewlad Brevis will be key in the absence of Suryakumar Yadav. With the ball, Jasprit Bumrah, Piyush Chawla, and Gerald Coetzee hold the key. 

Weather and Pitch

The weather conditions are expected to be hot and humid for the SRH vs MI game. The temperatures will be around 40 degrees during the day and will drop to 28 degrees with clear weather conditions. There is no threat of rain. 

Over the years, 71 IPL games have been played at the venue with 40 matches won by the team chasing. Thus there are all indications that this is a chasing ground and that it might be a high-scoring contest. The impact of dew will be an interesting observation. The average first innings score in T20Is in Hyderabad is around 200.

Conclusion

Mumbai Indians will look to shrug off their season opener defeat and get back to winning ways at a venue where they have a 50 % winning record against SRH. Sunrisers Hyderabad, on the other hand, will look to win their first home game of the season. 

Also Read: Kieron Pollard ditches Rohit Sharma to support Hardik Pandya despite leadership blunders