Mumbai Indians look to end desert drought

ABU DHABI: They were the defending champions when the seventh edition of the IPL got underway in the UAE 15 days ago. Today, as the league bids goodbye to the Emirates after successfully hosting the first leg of the tournament, the embarrassment of having to leave from here as the bottom-placed team should worry the Mumbai Indians.
On Wednesday, at the Dubai Cricket Stadium, the beleaguered MI will take on Sunrisers Hyderabad, another team that's been languishing at the seventh spot.Should MI accomplish a win here, both teams will walk away with equal points but MI will be seventh because they would have a better net run rate.
To the credit of both these sides, they have a bowling attack that's been doing well in the tournament and has been the sole factor in saving them the blushes. Barring the attacks, the batting and fielding of both sides - MI and SRH - have raised plenty of questions so far.
Poor umpiring has garnered unwanted attention in this tournament with almost every team has suffered the wrath of a wrong decision which has led to trouble. Had David Warner not been erroneously adjudged leg-before in the match against Chennai Super Kings the other day at Sharjah, the Sunrisers total could've been much higher.
But there's no time left to look back at what might have been.
Meanwhile, skipper Rohit Sharma is set to open the innings for the side once again alongside Aditya Tare and Michael Hussey, who's struggled for runs at the top of the order and at No. 4 (in the last match) too, will walk out to bat in the same position.
As all-rounder Kieron Pollard pointed out on Sunday, the Mumbai Indians have been swapping batting positions wherever possible, but none of the permutations have worked out for them so far.
The Sunrisers have no such worry. But lack of application has bothered this team. How these two teams perform on Wednesday will determine who stays at the bottom after the UAE leg of the IPL.