IPL 2021 a tournament that gets interesting as it progresses. We are a week and a half into this eventful journey and teams have started to find their mojo. We have two teams who have been looking good after initial setbacks. It is the match between India’s national capital against India’s financial capital. It is the Delhi Capitals taking on the Mumbai Indians. Last year’s finalists will lock horns at the MA Chidambaram stadium in Chennai on 20th April(Tuesday).

Delhi Capitals are looking well set as a team. Even without Anrich Nortje, they seemed to have found their right combination and his addition will only be a boost. Shikhar Dhawan is coming into this game with a string of high scores. Everything seems to go right for them and they are high on confidence as they face the defending champions. The only thing that Delhi will have to watch out for is the Chennai wicket. It is their first match there and they have to adapt quickly to the slow wicket.

The defending champions on the other hand will also be high on confidence. After losing their first game to the table-toppers Royal Challengers Bangalore they have come back strongly into this tournament. They have had two back-to-back wins and the credit has to go to their fantastic death bowling. Mumbai Indians have played their last three games at this venue and will have a slight advantage over Delhi in this aspect.

How the teams stack up

The Delhi Capitals’ batting looks strong as ever. Their Indian core is clicking and it is led by their senior player Shikhar Dhawan who is also currently the Orange Cap holder. He has batted beautifully and looks in fine touch. Delhi Capitals would certainly want their best batsman to continue his form. Prithvi Shaw also got off to a flier but then fell after scoring 32. He would want to convert his starts to a big innings. Steve Smith was included last time in the playing 11 and he will want to make good use of the chance given to him.

Mumbai Indians have been batting well. Their top order is firing and Surya Kumar Yadav has looked better than ever. Rohit Sharma who got the team off to a flier just has to look to convert his starts to a big score. It has been a while since we saw him play a big one and he might just deliver against last year’s finalists. One concern for Mumbai Indians has been Hardik Pandya’s batting form. The Indian all-rounder has a bit of a shoulder niggle which has not allowed him to play at his best. Mumbai would surely want their star all-rounder to bounce back. Kieron Pollard showed in the last game that he is still one of the best in the business when it comes to hitting the ball out of the park.

Delhi Capitals will be more or less happy with their bowling performances. Kagiso Rabada is back and now with Nortje joining the squad they certainly have received a boost. The spinners will have a huge role to play on the Chennai pitch. Ravichandran Ashwin will be leading the spin attack and the team will want him to deliver in Chennai. The Rabada-Nortje duo will certainly give fierce competition to Boult and Bumrah.

Mumbai Indians have been the best bowling unit this season. The credit for their two wins of the season should be given to their death bowlers. Jasprit Bumrah and Trent Boult have been better than ever. Krunal Pandya and Rahul Chahar have used the turn of the Chennai wicket to their advantage and have turned games in Mumbai Indians’ favour. All in all, Delhi will have a difficult time facing this bowling line-up.

Head to Head: Mumbai Indians vs Delhi Capitals

Total matches played: 28

MI won: 16

DC won: 12

Mumbai Indians have a decent record against Delhi Capitals. They will want to better this record and extend their winning form in this tournament.

Weather and Pitch Report

The weather in Chennai is expected to be clear for a smooth game of cricket. The temperature is expected to be around 30 degrees with 66% humidity. It has got purchase for both batsmen and bowlers. The matches that have been played here this year have shown that batting first has a better record. Captains will prefer to bat first as the wicket tends to get slower as the game progresses.

Team News

Delhi Capitals: Delhi Capitals will want to include South African bowler Anrich Nortje, which means that one of Chris Woakes or Steve Smith will have to drop to the bench.

Mumbai Indians: MI will not want to change the winning combination and are expected to use the same playing 11.

Squads

Delhi Capitals: Rishabh Pant (c & wk), Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Ajinkya Rahane, Shimron Hetmyer, Marcus Stoinis, Chris Woakes, R Ashwin, Amit Mishra, Lalit Yadav, Pravin Dubey, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Ishant Sharma, Avesh Khan, Steve Smith, Umesh Yadav, Ripal Patel, Vishnu Vinod, Lukman Meriwala, M Siddarth, Tom Curran, Sam Billings

Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (C), Ishan Kishan (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, James Neesham, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Rahul Chahar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah, Piyush Chawla, Dhawal Kulkarni, Saurabh Tiwary, Aditya Tare, Adam Milne, Chris Lynn, Jayant Yadav, Anmolpreet Singh, Quinton de Kock, Anukul Roy, Mohsin Khan, Arjun Tendulkar, Marco Jansen, Yudhvir Singh.