IPL 2023: Resurgent Mumbai aim to extend winning momentum against shaky Punjab

Mumbai Indians MI seeking their sixth IPL crown go into their clash against Punjab Kings at the Wankhede Stadium today with their confidence high following a hattrick of victories in an eightday spanMI lost their opening two clashes against Royal Challengers Bangalore RCB and Chennai Super Kings before bringing their campaign on track with a comprehensive away win over hosts Delhi Capitals on April 11Two other victories followed for the Rohit Sharmaled fivetime champions over Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad at home and away respectivelyThe 14run victory over SRH on April 18 significantly was achieved at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium when MI defended a moderately challenging target after their previous two successes had happened when they chased a targetThings are slowly but surely falling into place for MI although their batting order has not clicked to potential and the bowling unit is still not a settled oneBut there were encouraging signs in their success against SRH especially with their potentially matchwinning allrounder Cameron Green coming good with the bat while scoring 64 not out in 40 balls to help set up what proved to be a winning total of 1925Impressive bowling attackThe bowlers responded with speedsters Jason Behrendorff and Riley Meredith picking up two wickets apiece along with veteran leg spinner Piyush Chawla the teamrsquos top wickettaker so farYoung Arjun Tendulkar who made his debut in the previous home game against KKR also bowled an impressive last over in which he conceded just five runs to bring more cheers to the campCaptain Rohit Sharma fellowopener Ishan Kishan and the Worldrsquos No 1 T20 batsman Suryakumar Yadav are yet to bat to their potential When this happens the team will be even more formidableAlso Read Wersquoll look to continue to build on the winning momentum Jason BehrendorffMI return for ArcherIn bowling Jofra Archer who played the opening game and sat out the rest provides MI with another strong pace option if and when they choose to exercise it Behrendorff told reporters on match eve that Archer ldquohas been training strongly The medical team is working tirelessly We are waiting for the medical team to tick off all boxes Hopefully he is not far away from being fully fitrdquoTheir opponents Punjab come into the game with their confidence a bit low after suffering a defeat at home on Thursday against RCB their third loss in their last four matchesSkipper and inform opener Shikhar Dhawan missed his second game in a row and the team suffered as they failed to chase 174 put up by RCB and lost by 24 runs after being shot out for 150 in 182 overs in their home bastion at MohaliDhawan is crucial in their batting unit although the entry of bighitting Liam Livingstone for his first game of the season is a big plus in spite of his flop show against RCBTheir batting overall looks a bit brittle with their plans to field Englandrsquos Jonny Bairstow coming unhinged following the leg injury he sustained last year which has ruled him out of the entire seasonThe pace bowling too looks a bit weak if Kagiso Rabada is benched again and the spin department is also not formidable with leggie Rahul Chahar being its leading light