IPL 2025: MI will go into clash against SRH with confidence from beating DC out of nowhere, says Boucher

New Delhi, April 15 (IANS) Mark Boucher, the former head coach of Mumbai Indians, believes the Hardik Pandya-led will approach Thursday’s IPL 2025 match against Sunrisers Hyderabad at their home turf Wankhede Stadium with a big boost in confidence following their come-from-behind 12-run win over Delhi Capitals.

At the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Sunday, DC were cruising in their chase of 206 by reaching 113/1 at the half-way mark. But after that, a spirited comeback from MI’s bowlers, led by leg-spinner Karn Sharma’s 3-36, along with a tactical ball change after the 13th over, helped them trigger DC’s batting implosion and register just the second win of the ongoing season.

MI are now back home to take on SRH, who are arriving after chasing 245 against Punjab Kings, with left-handed opener Abhishek Sharma slamming a blazing 141. “Mumbai Indians will be in a good space at the moment, especially after winning a close game. Sometimes in the competition, they have been on the losing end of the close games – I mean, the games they have lost have gone down the wire.”

“That’s why Hardik said if they had hit some (more runs), they would have been on the winning side and the result would have changed. So, it was nice for them to come from a situation where halfway, they would have struggled to get a positive result in this game.”

“To pull it back from nowhere and end up winning the game, they will take a lot of confidence out of that, knowing that they can come back from a dead situation and win the game. So that confidence will be on a high.”

“Going into the next game against SRH at the Wankhede Stadium, they will understand that the bowlers might be under a bit of pressure, but there’s also opportunity for them to take wickets upfront,” said Boucher, a JioStar expert, to IANS on Tuesday.

From a batting perspective, Boucher, the former South Africa player, felt left-handed batter Tilak Varma will hold the key for MI, while expecting for Suryakumar Yadav to play a blistering knock soon.

On Sunday, Varma, who was retired out in Lucknow, played his extravagant shots to top-scored with 59 off 43 balls, as MI posted 205/5. Interestingly, it was the first time an IPL fifty from Varma ended in a winning cause.

“I think the batters upfront, they haven’t perhaps done what they would like to have done. So that's something that they would obviously be talking about. But I do think if they can get off to a decent start, then the middle order will really fire, because the middle order, especially with a guy like Tilak Varma, after he was declared (retired out two games ago), he's coming really good.”

“Then you've got Surya, who's sort of played a couple of decent innings, but hasn't really kicked on from there. So, he's got that ability. If he goes out and gets 90, then your side should win from that, and Hardik is in good form as well.”

“So I think there'll be a confident side at the moment, and they would be hoping that this last win that sort of went against the grain would be something that could kickstart their 2025 IPL,” concluded Boucher.

--IANS

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