SRH vs MI 31st Match Prediction

SRH vs MI Team Previews

Sunrisers Hyderabad

Just one win out of seven matches is a clear reflection of the struggles that SRH has had in IPL 2021. It made three changes to its team in the previous match including the big one of dropping David Warner.

We don’t think their team improved dramatically by including Mohammad Nabi. His only over went for 21 runs and he got slogging the fifth ball he faced. Yes, he did smash two sixes and a four in the previous four balls but that was not enough to make an impact in the match. Nabi is an excellent striker of the ball but does not last long. From a betting perspective, we like him for a ‘To hit a Six’ bet rather than ‘Total runs’.

Now that SRH has taken this decision, it has no option but to stick with it for at least a few more matches. Jason Holder is another player that could replace Mohammad Nabi but that may be harsh on the Afghan all-rounder.

SRH’s batting is not as strong as it should be. Manish Pandey, Jonny Bairstow, and Kane Williamson form a decent top-3 but with Vijay Shankar, Kedar Jadhav, and Mohammad Nabi to follow, the bulk of the runs have to be scored by the top-order.

More concerning than the batting would be the bowling. Bhuvaneshwar Kumar failed to pick up a single wicket and every bowler was expensive other than Rashid Khan. Teams are just playing out Rashid Khan without trying to take too many risks against him and so while Rashid Khan is not going for too many runs, he is not getting the wickets either.

We advise against picking Rashid Khan as your choice for player of the match or the top wicket-taker for SRH because the odds are never good enough to justify his recent returns.

SRH seems to be out of options and out of ideas right now. Its only hope is an inning of brilliance from one of its top-3.

Mumbai Indians

Mumbai Indians chased down 217 against Chennai Super Kings. Not only was it the first time that MI had chased down a total of over 200 but it was also the second-highest IPL chase of all time.

Kieron Pollard finally came into bat with some time on his hands and made an immediate impact. Surely that has to be the strategy for MI moving forward. We were surprised to see Ishan Kishan continue to miss out.

MI is playing with just three genuine batsmen and relying on all-rounders to do the job after them. Krunal Pandya, Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard, and Jimmy Neesham are all handy batsmen but neither of them can be classified as a genuine batsman.

This approach gives MI a lot of depth, an insane amount of bowling choices, and tremendous six-hitting power. It does leave the side vulnerable to early wickets, though. Just two early wickets will expose these all-rounders to the new ball and that is not something that Mumbai would want.

Jasprit Bumrah and Trent Boult had a tough outing in the previous match but they are still the best death-bowling pair in IPL 2021, no question about that. Rahul Chahar and the other all-rounders all add a lot of quality to the side.

Mumbai Indians is a team where we like Over/Unders on Sixes, Boundaries, or Session bets. On a good pitch, like what we have seen in Delhi so far, MI can go ‘Over’ on most of these bets and help you win.