Struggling Delhi takes on table-topper Mumbai on Saturday to book their place in to the Indian T20 League 2020 playoffs.
Match Timings: Oct 31, 3:30 PM
Team Preview
After a splendid start to the season, Delhi suffered back-to-back three defeats in the second half. In the previous game, Hyderabad humiliated them with an 88-runs loss. They have been outplayed by the opponents in all departments in the last two matches. The margin of defeats is making their playoffs chances dull. The failure of the top order is a big worrying sign along with Middle-order. Prithvi Shaw was dropped and Rahane introduced in the opening slot but it didn’t work out. Pant and Iyer both have been poor in middle-order. Even bowling is not up to the mark as they have been smashed out of the park. With two more games to go, Delhi requires to get at least two points to earn the playoffs berth. If they lose the next two games, they can only qualify, the basis of the net run-rate. They can relax as they have positive run-rate but other teams can catch their run-rate.
Meanwhile, Mumbai have secured their place in the playoffs with a clinical victory over Bangalore. Defending Champions would try to boost their chances in top-two finish and Pollard’s side needs one more win to ensure their appearance in the first qualifier. The new opening pair is taking a good start and in middle, Suryakumar Yadav is taking charge. Pollard and Pandya at finishing end are enough to catch the rhythm in flag-overs. Mumbai is a compact side with a high-flying pace-attack. There are no loopholes in Mumbai where an opponent can break this unit. Delhi will have to play out of their skin to surprise Mumbai. Rohit Sharma’s availability is in doubt and all doubts will be cleared on the toss.
Pitch Report
Dubai’s surface is a decent T20 track and it offers plenty of help to spin due to its sluggish behaviour of the pitch. Being the afternoon game, the surface would provide good spin and batting would be a challenging task. Batting first is an ideal call with quality spinners in the side.
Possible XI
Delhi
Ajinkya Rahane, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Shimron Hetmyer, Marcus Stoinis, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Tushar Deshpande
Mumbai
Ishan Kishan, Quinton de Kock (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Saurabh Tiwary, Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard (c), Krunal Pandya, James Pattinson, Rahul Chahar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah
Key Players
Delhi
Shikhar Dhawan
This season – M: 12, Runs: 471, Avg: 52.33
Kagiso Rabada
This season – M: 12, Wickets: 23, Avg: 16.86
Mumbai
Suryakumar Yadav
This season – M: 12, Runs: 362, Avg: 40.22
Jasprit Bumrah
This season – M: 12, Wickets: 20, Avg: 17.25
