Mumbai: After their best-ever start in the IPL, table toppers Mumbai Indians will want to extend the purple patch against inconsistent Delhi Daredevils at Wankhede Stadium here on Saturday.
Mumbai are unbeaten at home with three wins and five in a row overall this season. The hosts have won all tosses here and chased successfully though their bowlers can be tested while defending scores with dew making it hard to grip the ball.
Lasith Malinga has gone for 50-plus runs in the last two games and Mitchell McClenaghan also has been inconsistent. Mumbai have a decision to make whether to persist with their yesteryears’ talisman or give Mitchell Johnson or Tim Southee a chance though it seems unlikely they will tinker with a winning combination.
The hosts have many fast bowling options and understandably haven’t stuck to a particular planwith bowling changes. Southee, Malinga, Harbhajan Singh, McClenaghan have opened the bowling before and Hardik Pandya did so in last game. The spinners have done a decent job in the middle. With skipper Rohit Sharma getting some runs here on Sunday the batting looks a settled unit. Openers Jos Buttler and Parthiv Patel had given decent starts earlier but against Kings XI Punjab on Thursday they dismantled the bowlers with 81-run stand in 35 balls to set up chase of 199. Buttler showed why he is so dangerous at the top with brute hitting in his 37-ball 77. Nitish Rana is deserving owner of the orange cap and Kieron Pollard has been in form. The Pandya brothers (Krunal and Hardik) have finished games well.
Delhi Daredevils boosts of a fine lineup of talented young Indian batsmen in Rishabh Pant, Sanju Samson, Karun Nair and local boy Shreyas Iyer. Englishman Sam Billings at the top hasn’t fired on all cylinders yet while Angelo Mathews and Chris Morris enhance the batting depth. All-rounders Corey Anderson and Carlos Brathwaite are also options.
The visitors have played some good cricket but haven’t been able to sustain the momentum. The batsmen have been brilliant in patches but haven’t maintained consistency barring Samson and Pant.
Skipper Zaheer Khan has been smart with his choices like his bowling variations and leads the attack with the firepower of in-form Morris and Pat Cummins. So potent has Delhi’s pace attack been that Mohammed Shami hasn’t been a regular while Kagiso Rabada and Ben Hilfenhaus are waiting for their first game. Amit Mishra and Jayant Yadav are smart spin bowling options. Yadav is a utility batsman but wasn’t used in the last game, like the in form Morris.
