Mumbai Aim to Knock-out Stage vs Pune

Pune: Mumbai Indians look to close-in on a play-off berth against Helpless Pune Warriors in a Pepsi Indian Premier League encounter on Saturday.

Pune Warriors, similar to their performance last year when they lost nine matches on the trot, Pune suffered their eighth straight loss against Kolkata Knight Riders in their previous game yesterday, when they were beaten by 46 runs.

Languishing at the bottom of the table, Pune have won just two of their 13 games, while Mumbai Indians are third in the league table with eight wins in 12 matches.

The Warriors have been woefully out of sorts in all departments of the game. Having restricted holders Kolkata Knight Riders to 152, Pune failed to chase down the target and managed to score just 106.

Only opener Robin Uthappa (31) and all-rounder Angelo Matthews (40) got to double digit figures.

Yuvraj has managed just 172 runs from his 10 games, while dangerous batsman Steven Smith has returned to Australia due to a back injury.

The Rohit Sharma-led Mumbai Indians, on the other hand, are high on confidence after defeating table-toppers Chennai Super Kings (60 runs) and defending Champions Kolkata Knight Riders (65 runs) in their last two games.

Mumbai's batting, the middle-order has been the strength, with wicket-keeper batsman Dinesh Karthik and Rohit being the leading run-scorers for the team.

The bowling attack is formidable with Aussie pacer Mitchell Johnson (17 wickets) providing early breakthroughs and he is well supported by Lasith Malinga.

Teams from

Pune Warriors AJ Finch (captain), AD Mathews, ER Dwivedi, UA Birla, AB Dinda, RV Gomez, Harpreet Singh, DS Jadhav, B Kumar, AP Majumdar, M Manhas, MR Marsh, BAW Mendis, AG Murtaza, AM Nayar, IC Pandey, MK Pandey, WD Parnell, Parvez Rasool, M Rawat (wk), KW Richardson, MN Samuels, R Sharma, SPD Smith, TL Suman, Tamim Iqbal, LRPL Taylor, K Upadhyay, RV Uthappa (wk), SB Wagh, LJ Wright, Yuvraj Singh

Mumbai Indians RT Ponting (captain), RG Sharma, AN Ahmed, Amitoze Singh, AC Blizzard, JJ Bumrah, YS Chahal, NM Coulter-Nile, R Dhawan, JEC Franklin, Harbhajan Singh, PJ Hughes, Javed Khan, MG Johnson, KD Karthik (wk), DS Kulkarni, SL Malinga, SH Marathe, GJ Maxwell, PP Ojha, JDP Oram, AR Patel, MM Patel, KA Pollard, AT Rayudu, Jalaj S Saxena, DR Smith, P Suyal, AP Tare (wk), SR Tendulkar, SA Yadav

Match facts
Saturday May 11, 2013 (day/night)
Start time 16:00 local (1030 GMT)