New Delhi:
Mumbai Indians will lock horns with Rising Pune Supergiants in the IPL’s Maharashtra Derby at MCA Stadium on Thursday. Mumbai are known to be late bloomers of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
In the last IPL, Mumbai Indians went down to Rising Pune Supergiants in a lop-sided affair at the Wankhede Stadium. Having replaced Mahendra Singh Dhoni as Rising Pune Supergiant’s skipper, Smith now has an opportunity to extend his honeymoon with the city by helping the franchise put up a good show in the 2017 Indian Premier League.
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Lendl Simmons had played a key role in Mumbai’s successful campaign in 2015, but with Jos Buttler capable of doing a fair amount of damage with the bat, Mumbai too face a combination conundrum of their own.
Having faced each other two times in IPL 2016, the head to head record of the two teams is currently even-stevens. A collective effort with the ball, followed by a strong performance by the top-order batsmen helped Pune start with a nine-wicket victory in their maiden IPL game, against Mumbai.
RPS Probable XI: Ajinkya Rahane, Faf du Plessis, Steven Smith ©, Mayank Agarwal, Ben Stokes, MS Dhoni (wk), Rajat Bhatia, Ankit Sharma, Ashok Dinda, Adam Zampa/Imran Tahir, Shardul Thakur.
MI Probable XI: Rohit Sharma ©, Parthiv Patel (wk), Lendl Simmons/Jos Buttler, Ambati Rayudu, Krunal Pandya, Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Harbhajan Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Mitchell McClenaghan, Tim Southee
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