Mumbai Indians and Pune Warriors India are back to their winning ways and ready to face each other for the first time in this season. Aaron Flinch batted really well with Robin Uthappa and took Pune Warriors India (PWI) to a comfortable victory against Rajasthan Royals. Whereas duo of Dinesh Karthik and Rohit Sharma blasted against Delhi Daredevils and posed 209 on the board to ensure a win for MI. The spinners of both the sides are also looking really good.

Here we bring before you the players to watch out for in the match between Mumbai Indians and Pune Warriors India.

Mumbai Indians (MI)

Dinesh Karthik: Karthik has played an instrumental role in bringing Mumbai back to the winning ways. His knock of 86 runs in just 48 balls was just more than enough to take the game away from Delhi Daredevils. The way he handles pressure makes him an ideal number three batsman and his ability to counter-attack makes him a cog in the wheel.

Lasith Malinga: Malinga is back with a bang and is looking in much better rhythm this season. He bowled brilliantly in his four overs and gave away just 20 runs and picked up one wicket. His slinging bowling action will be a headache for Pune warriors whose batting line-up has not been able to fire in the first couple of matches.

Keiron Pollard: Pollard is a genuine match-winner and his presence in the squad gives a great sense of relief to Ricky Ponting. He has been fantastic so far with his bat but he needs to bowl better than what he is doing to restrict the opposition to a low score. Pune doesn’t have much depth in their bowling and a hard-hitter like him would be looking to take the advantage of that when he will face them at Wankhede.

Rohit Sharma: Rohit played a spectacular innings and led Mumbai Indians to a humongous total of 209 against Delhi Daredevils. He scored 74 runs in 50 balls and played till the end of the innings. He needs to repeat such performances on the consistent basis to make sure that Mumbai Indians make it to the last four without much hiccup.

Mitchell Johnson: Johnson has played a crucial role in making Mumbai win their last two matches. His ability to get the initial breakthroughs makes him a very lethal bowler and when he will take that new ball alongside Malinga, they become the most difficult pair to hit the runs. His ability to score runs at the end of the innings can be very crucial if middle-order of MI will collapses.

Pune Warriors India (PWI)
 

Rahul Sharma: Rahul Sharma bowled exceedingly well against Rajasthan Royals (RR) and picked up couple of wickets in his four overs. He gave away just 16 runs and kept bowling aggressively to keep the run rate down. On the turning track of Wankhede, he can be a very dangerous bowler.

Yuvraj Singh: Yuvi is back to form as he chipped in with couple of wickets in his comeback match against RR. He gave away just 27 runs in his quota of 27 overs. His ability to smash those massive sixes during the middle of the innings makes him a fruitful all-rounder in this format of the game.

Robin Uthappa: Uthappa played a blistering knock of 32 runs off just 16 balls. His ability to play those straight sixes makes him a very tough batsman to bowl but with the likes of Malinga and Johnson, he will be having a tough task ahead at Wankhede.

Aaron Finch: Finch smacked the Rajasthan Royals in his debut appearance for Pune Warriors. He scored 64 runs off 53 balls and made sure that he will take his side to the first win of this season. Finch can be very handy against the pace attack of Mumbai because he has faced the likes of Malinga and Johnson in Big Bash.

Ashok Dinda: Ashok Dinda bowled brilliantly in the death overs against Rajasthan Royals and restricted them to 145. His ability to bowl Yorkers on consistent basis makes a huge difference to the Pune Warriors. His teammate, Bhuvneshwar Kumar has not yet come up with the effectiveness of slower ones and has failed to execute the Yorkers which bring a lot more responsibility on his shoulders.

By Amit Chopra
Indian Sports News Network