Mumbai Indians (MI) scripted a composed and convincing victory, whereas Delhi Capitals’ (DC) victory came from the mistakes of Lucknow Supergiants (LSG)

On Saturday afternoon, Delhi Capitals and Mumbai Indians will meet in the capital of our country for their respective second games of the tournament. Both sides have won their season openers, and at present, Delhi Capitals sit third on the IPL table with a net run rate of +1.397, whereas the Mumbai Indians are fourth with +0.687. However, despite both teams winning their first-season openers and Delhi sitting above Mumbai, the Indians feel more settled and go into the match with an edge.

MI’s complete control

MI’s bowling did face some hiccups in the first innings, with many giving away an economy of 10 runs. However, the team still managed to stop the Kolkata Knight Riders at 220, which many highlighted was short of 30 runs on the Eden Gardens batting surface.

However, it was MI’s batting that controlled the game from the very beginning till the end. An opening partnership of 142 runs till the 11.5 over, followed by decent runs at blistering pace, kept the pressure on the Riders, whereas no Mumbai batter felt they had some sort of burden on them while standing on the crease. The team’s top five are also regular international cricketers for their respective sides, with tonnes of experience, who did not feel out of place.

The team completed the chase in 19.1 overs with six wickets in hand.

LSG’s lack of game awareness

DC’s bowling did extremely well, with none of the bowlers conceding more than an economy of 8 and picking at regular intervals. However, to some extent, lack of game awareness and unintelligent cricket also led to LSG’s downfall. The worst decision came from Shahbaz Ahmed, who took a single on the second ball of the 19th over, leaving Anrich Nortje and Mohsin Khan exposed, who lost their wickets in the next two deliveries, and LSG’s innings ended eight balls early.

Only if Ahmed had not taken the single and played more deliveries, LSG’s score could’ve been in the 160-170s region and imagine what would’ve happened then.

DC’s clunky machine

To score 145 runs, DC was reduced to 26/4 until Samir Rizvi and Tristan Stubbs controlled the situation and saved DC’s day. They ended the game in the 17.1 over, but had LSG reached 160-170 runs, it would’ve been a final-over thriller. Almost the entire DC’s top order faltered, whereas from LSG’s bowling unit, Ahmed and Aiden Markram gave away 16 and 13 runs in their respective overs, but the rest of the bowling unit had done a decent job.

In short, if we compare Mumbai and Delhi’s season openers, Delhi was far from a streamlined team, whereas the Mumbai Indians knew what they were doing and had the game’s tempo in their hands. On Saturday evening, the motion is clearly in Mumbai’s favour, and our prediction is a victory for the Indians.