Flailing teams on thin ice at Wankhede

Mumbai Indians and Lucknow Super Giants are placed ninth and 10th on the points table, both slowly slipping out of contention for playoff berths.

Mumbai Indians, with two wins from nine games, can reach a maximum of 14 points. Traditionally, teams with 16 points make the playoffs. Time may have run out for the five-time champions, despite having four World Cup winners and five more semifinalists in their ranks.

MI have used 23 players in nine matches — a testament to team imbalance, muddled selection calls, and panic-driven decisions.

Coach Mahela Jayawardene: "I think we've still got five more games. Anything can happen. We just need to finish the tournament positively. There's still a lot more cricket to be played, and I'm going to fight."

Suryakumar Yadav, who finished second last season, is currently 40th in the batting charts with 183 runs at an average of 20.33 and strike rate of 144.

Jayawardene on Suryakumar: "He's in a good space. It's just that it hasn't worked — the number of times he's got caught on the boundary. It's just a matter of time."

Lucknow last played on April 26. Their two best batters — Mitchell Marsh (212) and Aiden Markram (193) — together haven't managed more runs than any of the top three in the Orange Cap list. Their two costliest buys — Rishabh Pant and Nicholas Pooran (INR 48 crore combined) — have averages of 27 and 10.

LSG bowling coach Bharat Arun: "Every game is a knockout from here."

When: MI vs LSG, IPL 2026, May 4 at 7:30 PM IST

Where: Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai

What to expect: Red-soil pitch likely better for batting than Chennai. MI likely to post a big total if batting first.

Head to head: MI 2 – 6 LSG. LSG has won two of three games at Wankhede.

Injuries: No clarity on Rohit Sharma (right hamstring). MI unlikely to rest key players like Jasprit Bumrah.

Probable MI XII: Ryan Rickelton (wk), Will Jacks, Naman Dhir, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya (c), Krish Bhagat, Jasprit Bumrah, Ashwani Kumar, AM Ghazanfar, Raghu Sharma, Corbin Bosch

Probable LSG XII: Mitchell Marsh, Aiden Markram, Rishabh Pant (c & wk), Josh Inglis, Ayush Badoni, Himmat Singh, Mukul Choudhary, Manimaran Siddharth, Mohsin Khan, Mohammed Shami, Digvesh Rathi, Prince Yadav