IPL 2018, Match 9: Mumbai Indians vs Delhi Daredevils – Match Predictions

Which franchise has a good chance to hitting the jackpot?

Published - 13 Apr 2018, 15:30 IST | Updated - 13 Apr 2018, 15:30 IST

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The Mumbai Indians are positioned right down at the bottom of the points table at the moment, but they have actually not played as poorly as it reflects. Both the games they have lost so far, they could have easily won if the luck had favoured them a little bit towards the end. While they won’t be too happy with how they have fared up, they won’t be disheartened either and will surely back themselves to turn it around as they face the Delhi Daredevils at home tomorrow afternoon.

The Delhi Daredevils had to swallow a tough pill the other evening when they had to chase a shortened target against the Rajasthan Royals due to rain and they couldn’t get over the line. They would have thought if the rain hadn’t interrupted the game and it was a full 20-over chase, they had a really good chance of winning. However as it turned out, they found themselves at the wrong end of the stick and while it was indeed gutting, they will have to quickly move on and shift their focus on this Mumbai game.

Pitch and Conditions

Wankhede played like a typical Wankhede in the opening game of the tournament. While there was a little bit of spice in the surface initially and the fast bowlers managed to extract something out of it in the first couple of overs, it quickly flattened out and turned absolutely ideal for stroke-play.

The odd ball turned and the bounce at Wankhede always gives the spinners a bit of an extra advantage. However, all in all, it was a good batting deck and in all likelihood, should remain the same tomorrow.

Since it’s an afternoon game, the dew will not be much of a factor, but the captain winning the toss will still be hesitant to bat first for the fact that it’s not the biggest ground in the world in terms of boundary-size and the bowlers can be under pressure defending the score in the second innings.

Playing Combination

Mumbai Indians

Probable changes – Hardik Pandya and Akila Dananjaya in, Ben Cutting and Pradeep Sangwan out

Hardik Pandya should be fit for this game and he will replace Ben Cutting as a like-for-like replacement. The exclusion of Cutting will open up the 4th overseas slot where Mumbai might place the Sri Lankan mystery spinner Akila Dananjaya.

Dananjaya has all sorts of variations in his repertoire, but his stock ball is the off-spin and with three left-handers in top 3 for Delhi, his selection will make a lot of sense. The team management will probably deliberate the New Zealand pacer, Mitchell McClenaghan, as well, but his recent form might go against him.

Predicted XI: Rohit Sharma (C), Evin Lewis, Ishan Kishan (WK), Surya Kumar Yadav, Krunal Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Akila Dannjaya, Mayank Markande, Mustafizur Rahman, Jasprit Bumrah

Delhi Daredevils

Probable Changes – No change

The Delhi Daredevils expectedly and rightly dropped Amit Mishra for Shahbaz Nadeem last game and the Jharkhand left-arm spinner bowled a decent spell chipping away with a couple of wickets in his 4 overs at a rate of 8 and a half. He will surely hold onto his spot in the XI and so will his spin partner Rahul Tewatia who was pretty economical as well at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium.

Glenn Maxwell for Daniel Christian was an obvious choice as soon as he joined the camp and even though the hard-hitting all-rounder looked a bit rusty against Rajasthan and couldn’t get the boundaries away early opening the batting in a stiff chase, there will be no reconsideration of his place in the XI and he will surely play.

Predicted XI: Gautam Gambhir (C), Colin Munro, Rishabh Pant (WK), Shreyas Iyer, Glenn Maxwell, Chris Morris, Vijay Shankar, Rahul Tewatia, Shahbaz Nadeem, Mohammed Shami, Trent Boult

Team Comparison

Mumbai Indians possess all the necessities needed to win T20 games on a regular basis. While they have explosive power up top with the bat, they also have game-changing finishers down the order. Bowling wise, they have got attacking options and they can force mistakes off the batsmen in the middle overs to break the game open. Their death bowling duo of Jasprit Bumrah and Mustafizur Rahman is any way the most capable in the tournament.

Mumbai will, however, like to improve a little bit with the new ball and try and get a couple of early wickets which they haven’t got so far. They might use Akila Dananjaya in the power-play if the 24-year old is included in the XI.

Delhi also has a decent bowling attack but comparing in terms of quality, they are not quite there standing neck and neck with Mumbai. They lack options in the death as none of their three fast bowlers are renowned for death bowling. Talking about their spinners, however good and accurate they are, they don’t have much variety. They are not attacking in nature and generally look to contain the batsmen which don’t really work on flat pitches.

The visitors have got some power in batting, with Munro there at the top and with Pant and Maxwell there in the middle order, but there is a question mark over the efficiency of their finishers. While Vijay Shankar has struggled so far and simply needs to raise his game, Chris Morris also, despite having looked in decent form, will be up for a real test against the likes of Bumrah and Mustafizur.