Mumbai Indians will look to effectively become the fourth and final team to confirm their spot in the playoffs of this season’s IPL when they take on Delhi Capitals at the Wankhede on Wednesday evening. Delhi’s humbling 10 wicket loss to Gujarat Titans over the weekend confirmed the latter’s playoff spot as well as those of Punjab Kings and RCB, meaning that there’s now just one place up for grabs.
MI have 14 points from 12 games while Delhi have 13 points from the same number of games. A win for MI all but confirms their spot in the playoffs and eliminates Delhi. While LSG can theoretically finish on the same number of points as MI, the NRR gap between the two teams is practically too large to be breached. If Delhi beat MI on Wednesday, then the battle goes into the final round of fixtures- both have the same opponent (PBKS)
Delhi though have won only one of their last six games in the tournament. They were also lucky that the game against SRH was called off due to rain- they were staring down the barrel in that one too. It therefore comes as no surprise that the betting odds have MI starting as strong favourites against Axar Patel’s side.
DC’s problems begin at the top- Faf du Plessis has simply not had the same impact for them as he did at Chennai and Bangalore. KL Rahul has been doing the bulk of the scoring, aided by cameos from the likes of Ashutosh Sharma and Tristan Stubbs. The bowling has also flattered to deceive and the withdrawal of ace Australian pacer Mitchell Starc has further compounded issues.
DC have tried a number of bowlers- Mukesh, Mohit Sharma, Dushmantha Chameera, Mustafizur Rahman and T Natarajan have all been used, but have simply been unable to find a settled combo. In their last match against Gujarat, their attack was unable to take a single wicket despite having 200 to defend in home conditions, and GT chased it down comfortably with an over to spare.
What happened in the reverse fixture?
The reverse fixture was technically where DC’s downfall in this tournament began. They were 135 in the 12th over chasing 205, but then imploded and lost by 12 runs.
In many ways, MI have been the antithesis of Delhi Capitals in this tournament. While Delhi got off to a fast start, MI managed just 1 win in their opening 5 games. But where DC lost their way in the middle, MI stormed back with six consecutive wins before having that streak narrowly halted by the Gujarat Titans. Even that was a fixture they should’ve won, but for some poor bowling from Deepak Chahar at the end, with a no-ball and a missed run-out compounding things.
The only slight concern for MI would be replacing Ryan Rickleton and Corbin Bosch, with the South African duo unavailable for the playoffs due to WTC commitments. Wicket-keeper opener Rickleton in particular has been a good foil to Rohit Sharma at the top, while Bosch has been a handy fifth bowler cum lower order hitter.
