The final weekend of the Indian Premier League regular season begins with a double header of action on Saturday, one which starts off in Dubai as the third placed Delhi Capitals take on the leaders Mumbai Indians in an appealing contest.
Delhi have watched on and seen results go their way and with their net run rate still good they should be assured of a play-off place but a win here would guarantee it. Mumbai are definitely in the play-offs and will guarantee top spot heading into the postseason with their own victory.
Delhi Capitals
The Delhi Capitals looked the real deal earlier in the season when they were blazing a trail at the top of the table but they have come to a shuddering halt in recent matches and while it looks like they have done enough to make it through to the postseason, they will want to find their form over their last two matches before they get there. It is quite remarkable how quickly and how horrendously their form has dipped and they’ll have their work cut out to find it again.
Sometimes when a team loses form it is only one side of the game that is an issue. That isn’t the case for the Delhi Capitals. Their bowling has suddenly been getting torn apart and their batting is struggling to maintain their standards. We initially put their slump down to the change with the Rishabh Pant injury but clearly it lies deeper than that. It will be interesting to see if they bring Prithvi Shaw back into the side here.
Mumbai Indians
There have been no such issues for the Mumbai Indians. They have only lost four matches all season and two of those were in a Super Over, one of which went to a second tiebreak over so they have been competitive in all of their matches. When you consider that one of the other two losses came in their first match of the campaign there can be no issues with the form of the Mumbai side. They are regulars at playing their best stuff at this stage of a campaign so this can be no surprise.
The big thing which hasn’t really changed all season is the form of the Mumbai Indians batting line up. Even with Rohit Sharma out of the equation because of injury they have not let up in their ability to put a lot of runs on the board. With the quality of bowlers that they have whenever they put up a sizeable amount of runs they are going to be tough to beat and it will take special innings like the Ben Stokes century to get the better of them.
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Key Men
Rishabh Pant has done nothing close to justifying the hype around him all season. We know he is a big hitting batsman who hits a clean ball and now would be the perfect opportunity for him to showcase that ability.
With the two danger men for the Delhi Capitals being South African quick bowlers you would think Quinton de Kock will know how to deal with that threat so he could be a key man for the Mumbai Indians both at the crease and in the dressing room.
Betting
I’ve been reluctant to get involved in any high scoring thoughts in these day games in this tournament but all Mumbai Indians matches have been pretty high scoring and the pitches actually look to be getting much better again which almost defies logic when you think how long this tournament has been going on for. The way the Delhi Capitals attack has been ripped apart in the last two matches also leads to this being a relatively free scoring game.
Delhi have surrendered 194 and 219 in their last two matches and you’ve got to think if there is not a humungous improvement in their bowling ranks Mumbai are going to feast on this attack once again. To be fair to Mumbai they bowl aggressive lengths so they invite big hits and are prepared to take their chances because they know their batsmen are in such good touch. When you look down both lists at the power on show it is hard to believe we won’t see more than 36.5 boundaries here.
Tips
Back Over 36.5 boundaries for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with William Hill
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