IPL 2022 MI vs PBKS Preview - Will Punjab's slog first approach deliver a result against bottom team Mumbai?

Key match stats MI vs PBKS

Pitch Stats – Maharashtra Stadium

Average first innings score: 169
Average first innings winning score: 187
Average powerplay score: 46
All-time win % batting 1st vs batting 2nd: 36% / 64%

Team form MI vs PBKS
MI – LLLL
PBKS – WLWL
Recent meetings: MI won by 6 wickets, PBKS won by 9 wickets

MI vs PBKS Preview

And then there was one!

After Chennai's convincing win over RCB and Sunrisers revival over the last couple of games, the Mumbai Indian, 5 times champions of the IPL, find themselves as the only franchise not to have recorded a victory in 2022.

As I've discussed in previous blogs, the problems for Mumbai are difficult to really pin down. They play good cricket for portions of a match and then completely fall apart during others.

Again, this was evident in their most recent defeat by RCB where they got off to a very solid start, adding 50 for the first wicket at a good rate only to then collapse losing 5 wickets in 23 balls for the addition of just 12 runs. Had it not have been for a brilliant rearguard from Suryakumar Yadav then things might have gotten really embarrassing for MI but ultimately their 151 was never likely to be enough and RCB fairly cruised to victory.

As previously noted, it wasn't a good auction for MI and this was only underlined in their last match by the fact that they chopped and changed their side once again leading to the selection of just 2 overseas players. You suspect that short of a miracle, Mumbai are now planning for next season and a few guys in their squad are essentially playing for their contracts over the next 6 weeks.

As for PBKS, they continue to be entertaining for the neutral viewer but if you are a Punjab supporter you must be pulling your hair out over some of the brainless cricket on display in their defeat against Gujarat Titans.

Run rate during the powerplay by team in IPL 2022 - full IPL 2022 powerplay stats here

PBKS have certainly set their stall out to be attacking with the bat as the above powerplay stats show but in all honesty they don't have the depth in their batting line-up to keep swinging in this manner.

In their game against GT, Liam Livingstone was once again going great guns and leading his side to a strong position but it seemed like the rest of the middle order felt they had to try and match his strike rate. Odean Smith for example tried smashing his first ball out the ground and failed. Shahrukh Khan tried taking on Rashid Khan in his final over and failed. It's all very well playing in an aggressive manner but you've also got to play the percentages.

The issue this is causing for PBKS is that while they may be getting off to flying starts, conversely they tend to spend the last period of their innings simply trying to bat out the overs with what is a fairly long tail being asked to add a few more runs. This is demonstrated by them going from top scorers in the first 6 overs to lowest scorers in the last 5.

Run rate during at the death by team in IPL 2022 - full IPL 2022 death over stats here

Here at Pune, sides have generally struggled to score big in the early part of their innings with the pitches offering a little bit of lateral movement early on. Mumbai actually showed exactly how to go about building an innings here in their last match before the aforementioned collapse. Will PBKS temper their attacking nature to suit the conditions or will they opt to just throw caution to the wind once again?

Venue	Average PP score in IPL 2022
Brabourne Stadium	53.5
DY Patil Stadium	44.6
Wankhede Stadium	42.5
Maharashtra Stadium	38.5

Average powerplay scores by venue for IPL 2022, full venue stats here

MI vs PBKS head to head

PBKS bowling vs MI batting

It should be a good battle between 2 of India's emerging talents in the form of Ishan Kishan and Arshdeep Singh. Ishan has had his problems against the full wide ball in recent games and you can bet that Arshdeep and his fellow PBKS seamers will look to blunt Mumbai's opener by using this tactic again. For Arshdeep, the challenge will be not to go too straight because if he does, his natural angle will be right into Ishan's hitting arc.

Ishan Kishan T20 career record vs left-arm seam

One of Mumbai's weak points this season has been against wrist-spin with their overseas players in the middle order being blown away on a couple of occasions by both Chahal in the game against Rajasthan and then more recently Hasaranga vs RCB.

In this match they'll be up against former teammate Rahul Chahar who has settled in nicely at PBKS and will be a danger man in the middle overs. It is crucial that Mumbai ensure at least one of their very strong home grown top order is at the crease when he comes onto bowl to avoid a similar capitulation here today.

As you can see from the graphic below, the overseas players have crumbled against quality wrist-spin by contrast the Indian batsmen for MI have yet to be dismissed in the 11 overs of wrist-spin they've faced this season, milking 89 runs in the process.

Mumbai Indians overseas middle order batsmen (Tim David, Kieron Pollard, Dewald Brevis and Daniel Sams) combined record in IPL 2022 vs wrist spin

MI bowling vs PBKS batting

PBKS will be concerned by the early season form of captain Mayank Agarwal who has so far scored just 42 runs this season (32 of which came in the opening game). In this match, things don't look likely to get any easier for the right-hander as he comes head to head against Jasprit Bumrah, a player that has dismissed him with ease in previous meetings.

Bumrah vs Agarwal T20 head to head

There is always a lot of debate about when exactly Bumrah should bowl and how many overs he should deliver in the powerplay. Surely given his match-up against Agarwal, he should take the first one in this game?

Conversely, Shikhar Dhawan has a very good record against Bumrah (dismissed just once from 77 balls faced, while scoring 96 runs) and in fact against this Mumbai attack in general.

Dhawan combined head to head record against the current Mumbai Indians squad

Dhawan's role is surely to anchor the innings while the big hitters go off around him and if he can play that part here today then PBKS will be in a good position to get the win that would move them back into the play-off places.

All stats used in this blog are from my own database. Images are my own with the exception of player profiles and background images which are used under a creative commons license or otherwise royalty free