Mumbai Indians will take on Delhi Daredevils on Saturday. (Source: IPL)
Mumbai Indians will play their second home match of IPL 2018 when they take on equally struggling Delhi Daredevils in match 9 of the tournament. Both the teams have had a disastrous start to their campaign facing two successive defeats. While MI lost to CSK and SRH in close encounters, DD have been blown away by RR and KXIP. For MI, it is time they shrugged off their habit of being slow starters and maximum advantage of home conditions. DD, on the other hand, will be keen to register their first victory in IPL 11. Going by statistics, MI do seem favourites to seal this match as DD have only been able to register one victory at the Wankhede. However, the last thing one can do in the IPL is predicting results based simply on numbers because on their day any team can emerge as victorious.
Weaknesses:
Gautam Gambhir seems like the only bright spot in DD’s batting right now as the likes of Rishabh Pant, Chris Morris and Shreyas Iyer have failed to fire in unison while Delhi struggles to find a perfect and balanced batting order. Further, DD have a good pace attack with the likes of Trent Boult, Mohammed Shami and Chris Morris in the lineup. But failed to put a halt on the scoring rate of the opponents and this has caused trouble for them in the opening encounters respectively.
Rohit Sharma is MI’s biggest match-winner but he is yet to get among the runs. Once Sharma gets going, the relatively inexperienced middle-order will feel at ease. The Mumbai Indians captain has scored more runs against the Delhi Daredevils than against any other IPL team; more than 600 runs.
Gautam Gambhir scored 55 on his return to Delhi Daredevils. (Source: IPL)
Players to watch out for:
Mumbai Indians have unearthed a genuine talent in Mayank Markande, who has gone on to become the purple cap holder in his debut season. West Indian Evin Lewis showed glimpses of his talent in the previous match and hence he could explode against a beleaguered DD attack. Surya Kumar Yadav has also got off to consistent starts and a big knock might well be around the corner.
Gambhir slammed a fluent fifty in the first match before being run-out in the second. The southpaw looked in sublime form and hence he is the one to watch out for. Big-hitter Glenn Maxwell also seemed jet-lagged against Rajasthan and on Saturday could well return to form.
Among the bowlers, look out for the seasoned perfromers including Mustafizur Rahman, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Trent Boult.
Mayank Markande is the purple cap holder. (Source: IPL)
SQUADS:
Mumbai Indians-
Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah, Rahul Chahar, Pat Cummins, Ben Cutting, Akila Dananjaya, JP Duminy, Ishan Kishan, Siddhesh Lad, Evin Lewis, Sharad Lumba, Mayank Markande, Mitchell McClenaghan, Mohsin Khan, Mustafizur Rahman, MD Nidheesh, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Anukul Roy, Pradeep Sangwan, Tajinder Singh, Aditya Tare (W), Saurabh Tiwary, Suryakumar Yadav.
Delhi Daredevils-
Gautam Gambhir (C), Abhishek Sharma, Avesh Khan, Trent Boult, Dan Christian, Sayan Ghosh, Gurkeerat Mann Singh, Shreyas Iyer, Sandeep Lamichhane, Manjot Kalra, Glenn Maxwell, Amit Mishra, Mohammed Shami, Chris Morris, Colin Munro, Shahbaz Nadeem, Naman Ojha, Rishabh Pant (W), Harshal Patel, Liam Plunkett, Jason Roy, Vijay Shankar, Prithvi Shaw, Rahul Tewatia, Jayant Yadav.