The top five sides in the table now appear to have opened up a significant enough gap between themselves and the other three teams, to suggest that the knockout phase of the competition will be fought out by four of the current top five.
Mumbai have 10 points to their credit after nine matches, the same as the Delhi Daredevils and the Sunrisers, both of whom have played a game less, but both of whom have a superior overall run rate.
On Sunday, Mumbai face a vital fixture at the Wankhede Stadium against the Sunrisers. While defeat wouldn’t be terminal to their chances of qualifying to defend their title, it will leave them with little room for manoeuvre over what for them will be the final four games of the qualifying process.
The Sunrisers themselves have now won five of their last six fixtures. The one defeat during that run coming against the Rising Pune Supergiants in a rain affected contest, where they were beaten on the D/L method.
The two sides first met in the 2016 IPL back on 18th April, when Hyderabad were the victors by 7-wickets.
After being put into bat, Mumbai struggled to break the shackles imposed by the home team’s bowlers. Managing to score just 40-2 during their six over powerplay. Only Krunal Pandya with some useful late hitting, scoring 49 off 28 deliveries, including three sixes, helped to lift the Champions to 142-6.
With David Warner at his imperious best, striking 90 not out from a mere 59 balls faced, with seven fours and four sixes, the Sunrisers were never under pressure, and the Australian just required the batsmen at the other end to feed him the strike. Only the Kiwi seamer, Tim Southee who took 3-24 exerted any control over the hosts batsmen, and they eased home with 7-wickets and 15 balls in hand.