After pulling off a thrilling win in their previous match against Gujarat Titans, the JSW and GMR co-owned franchise Delhi Capitals are in readiness to consolidate their position as they take on  Indian Win Sports Ltd (a subsidiary of Reliance Industries) owned  Mumbai Indians in their next game of the TATA IPL 2024 at Arun Jaitley Stadium on Saturday 27 April, 2024.

With four wins and five losses in nine matches, including three out of their last four matches, Delhi Capitals are currently placed sixth on the points table.

While five times former champions MI posted a familiar poor start, bounced back with three wins in their next four matches, before being outplayed Rajasthan Royals by nine-wicket. They are currently placed eighth place on the points table and can ill-afford to lose if they harbour any chance of making it to the play-offs under Hardik Pandya’s leadership.

Head to Head MI leads DC 19-15 and add to it they have also won their last three encounters, including a 29-run win this season at their home base at Wankhede Stadium early this month.

Addressing the pre-match press conference on Friday, Delhi Capitals' Director of Cricket Sourav Ganguly highlighted that this is an important phase of the tournament. He said, "If you look at the table, except Rajasthan, everybody is one game this way or that way, and it normally happens in such big tournaments like IPL and World Cup. It's rare that some teams will just go right through".

He further added "Every game is important. And also what it does is, you're already into the tournament, you've played eight or nine games and players are in form, they know what to do. So, that's why this is always a very important stage of the tournament."

Responding to a query about Delhi Capitals being involved in high-scoring matches under Rishabh Pant’s leadership, Ganguly said, "We've given and we've scored. Because this is a fantastic wicket, it's not the biggest of grounds, and it's very hard on the bowlers."

Talking about the match against Mumbai Indians, the former India Captain said, "We are open to chasing and we might chase tomorrow. I don't think there's any hard and fast rule. Depends on the situation, on the ground, on the teams we are playing."

Ganguly also mentioned that Ishant Sharma and David Warner are injured and may not be available for selection for the match against Mumbai Indians, while Afghanistan's Gulbadin Naib who was flown in as a replacement for Australian all-rounder Mitchell Marsh may make the final cut.

On the other hand Mumbai Indians middle order attacking batter Tim David was confident of his teams change in fortunes in the remainder matches of the tourney and said “The pitch plays a key part in a team scoring big and If we get one like the last time we got in Delhi last time or the Hyderabad game this season, hopefully we can put a big score.  But again, it's tough to say what will happen because there's so much skill on show”.

Even as Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma have the key batters who have been doing the bulk of the scoring this season for Mumbai Indians, Nehal Wadhera and opener Ishan Kishan too found form in the last match against Rajasthan Royals.

The visitors however need to bring up their A game and score big batting first or chase down the target in minimal overs in order to improve their Net Run Rate,  and for that Tim David and skipper Hardik Pandya need to contribute in a big way and take some pressure off the top trio.

Sharing his thoughts on the number of high scoring matches witnessed this season as compared to the previous ones David further added “Guys are pushing (the bar) on expectations of what is a good score in T20 cricket. As an international player I have some experience playing in different grounds around the world, different conditions, and there's certainly been some very high scores in this IPL"

He also said the management will select the best team based on the conditions as there was no injury in Mumbai Indians camp.

Photo Above: With play-offs in mind Mumbai Indians skipper Hardik Pandya and Delhi Capitals captain Rishabh Pant will under pressure to deliver in the remaining IPL matches (File Photo courtesy BCCI)