FANTASY PREVIEW
Follow UsAfter starting the tournament with two back-to-back losses, Mumbai Indians are back in the reckoning now with three straight wins. Their bowling has clicked, and the batters have shown their abilities, which means they go into Saturday’s home encounter with a lot of confidence.
Both sides have played each other 29 times in the history of the Indian Premier League, with Mumbai Indians triumphing over them 15 times as compared to 14 wins by Punjab Kings.
Ground Details
Batters have dominated in both the matches played at the Wankhede this IPL. Batters have averaged 31.2 per dismissal at the Wankhede Stadium, which is the best after M Chinnaswamy (31.4). Bowlers have snaffled a wicket every 20.7 balls, the worst among all venues.
Interestingly, before IPL 2023, Wankhede was conducive for pacers (since IPL 2016). However, in the two matches this season, the quicks have had a wicket every 25.9 balls and 43.9 runs, the worst—their economy of 10.2 is the third highest. The spinners have aced in all aspects. They have picked up 59.1% of wickets while conceding runs at 7.7. They have a balls/wicket ratio of 17.1 and an average of 21.8.
The average first-innings score at this venue is around 170, while the average first-innings winning score has been around 195 in both IPL and T20s since 2021.
Suggested team
While you could go for the above team, you can choose your team from Cricket.com's Fantasy Research Centre. You can use this tool to build your team with the help of algorithms. Then, based on your preferences, the platform will guide you through creating the ideal fantasy XI.
Suggested captains
For Small League: Ishan Kishan (Captain), Arshdeep Singh (Vice-Captain)
For Grand League : Tilak Verma (Captain), Jitesh Sharma (Vice-captain)
Stats that matter
> Ishan Kishan has made a huge impact at the top this season and has taken the attack to the opposition in the first six overs, where he scored 137 runs at an SR of 165. And the reason for this has been his performance against the pacers against whom he has operated at an SR of 168 this season.
> In IPL since 2022, Tilak Varma has scored the most runs amongst all batters in overs 7-15. Along with it, his average of 51.5 in the middle overs is the second-best for an MI batter who has played 10+ balls in this phase. While he carries the innings sturdily through the middle overs, his strike rate hikes to 250 in the final five overs, which is the best in IPL 2023 amongst batters who have faced at least 20 deliveries at the phase.
>Jitesh Sharma played well in his last game against RCB, scoring a quickfire 41 runs at a strike rate of 152. This is his second-highest score in IPL history. He played well against both pacers and spinners, with a strike rate of above 150 against both pacers and spinners in the IPL since 2022
Grand League Punts
> While previously we had mentioned that Ishan Kishan has been quite aggressive this season, he has a forgettable record against Punjab Kings. The Jharkhand wicket-keeper batter has the third-lowest average against PBKS among all other opponents and also has his second-least strike rate of 103 against them in IPL. He has been dismissed for a single-digit score four times in the last five innings against Punjab Kings in IPL. Hence, you can make a case for that.
> He took his time early on in the innings, and once he was set, he took the attack to the opposition. He was more aggressive against pacers, as he scored most of his runs against them with an SR of 187. He has performed well against LAPs, having scored 54 runs at an SR of 235 against them, which is amongst the highest for a batsman this season.
Probable XIs
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (c), Ishan Kishan (wk), Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav, Tim David, Cameron Green, Arjun Tendulkar, Nehal Wadhera, Hrithik Shokeen, Piyush Chawla, Jason Behrendorff
Punjab Kings : Atharva Taide, Matthew Short, Harpreet Singh Bhatia, Liam Livingstone, Sam Curran (c), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Shahrukh Khan, Harpreet Brar, Nathan Ellis, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh
