IPL 2025 | Can Mumbai Indians make it five in a row

The View From India Looking at World Affairs from the Indian perspective. Karnataka Today Your daily dose of news highlights from Karnataka First Day First Show News and reviews from the world of cinema and streaming. Today's Cache Your download of the top 5 technology stories of the day. Science For All The weekly newsletter from science writers takes the jargon out of science and puts the fun in! Data Point Decoding the headlines with facts, figures, and numbers Health Matters Ramya Kannan writes to you on getting to good health, and staying there The Hindu On Books Books of the week, reviews, excerpts, new titles and features. Published - April 26, 2025 06:27 pm IST - Mumbai Spin-factor: Bishnoi and Digvesh will have to step up against the MI batting might. | Photo Credit: EMMANUAL YOGINI Mumbai Indians, after a usual slow start to the season, has switched into top gear in no time. Thanks to their four-match winning run, Hardik Pandya’s men have been catapulted into the top four for the first time since he took over ahead of IPL 2024. Come Sunday, MI will be hoping to make it a perfect five by overcoming Rishabh Pant’s Lucknow Super Giants. But the task will be easier said than done. After all, never has MI defeated LSG in a league match in the previous three editions. Even on current form, with LSG hovering around the qualification mark for most of the tournament, the host will have its task cut out. MI will be hoping for Deepak Chahar and Trent Boult to account for LSG’s top-three overseas batters so that Jasprit Bumrah can be used in the middle and death overs. Mitchell Marsh has been consistent, Aiden Markram has flourished as the tournament has progressed, and Nicholas Pooran has had a bit of a dip after a sensational start. Nicholas Pooran. | Photo Credit: EMMANUAL YOGINI LSG will be banking on the top three to fire on a fresh Wankhede Stadium pitch – the centre wicket that will be used for the first time this season. For MI, Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav have found form, thus making the opposition bowling attack mediocre over the last week. If spinners Digvesh Rathi and Ravi Bishnoi can contain them, the visitor will give itself a good chance. Mumbai Indians’ Rohit Sharma. | Photo Credit: EMMANUAL YOGINI Meanwhile, suspense lingered over Mayank Yadav’s availability for Sunday’s game. The pacer was seen at LSG’s training on Friday but wasn’t at the ground on Saturday. Terms & conditions  |  Institutional Subscriber Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments. We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.