By Prakash Nair 
New Delhi, April 4: You know what is funny about this IPL season so far? Every single team that has played has won their first game. Every single one. So when DC [Delhi Capitals] and MI [Mumbai Indians] meet this afternoon at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, both sides are going to walk out feeling like they have something to protect.
One of them is going to lose that feeling by evening.
Toss is at 3. Match starts at 3:30. And if the clouds over Delhi behave themselves, we are in for a proper contest.
Delhi Got the Job Done. Just About.
Go back to Tuesday. Delhi Capitals are in Lucknow, playing away from home, first game of the season. Lucknow Super Giants bat first and honestly have a terrible day. They get bowled out for 141. Ngidi takes three. Natarajan takes three. Kuldeep gets two. Delhi’s bowling was sharp, controlled and exactly what the captain Axar Patel would have planned.
Then Delhi tried their best to mess it up.
KL Rahul out early. Nissanka gone. Nitish Rana gone. Three wickets down and the dressing room must have been very quiet. Chasing 142 should not be that stressful. It was becoming stressful very fast.
Then Sameer Rizvi came in.
He is 21. He bats like he has not read the match situation memo. He just hits. He scored 70 off 47 balls, put together a 119-run stand with Tristan Stubbs and by the time it was over Delhi had won with nearly three overs to spare. The whole mood changed the second Rizvi walked to the crease.
That kind of innings from a young player sticks in people’s minds. Opposition teams will have noticed.
Mumbai Did Not Just Win. They Sent a Message.
Now go back to Saturday, March 29. Mumbai Indians at home against Kolkata Knight Riders. KKR bat first and put up 220 runs. That is a lot. That is a very serious total in any T20 match anywhere in the world.
Mumbai chased it in 19.1 overs.
Rohit Sharma and Ryan Rickelton opened the batting and between the two of them they made 148 runs in fewer than 12 overs. Think about what that means. They scored 148 before the drinks break was even a distant thought. By the time Rohit got out for 78 and Rickelton for 81, the match was essentially finished. The rest was formality.
And here is a little fact that puts it in context. Mumbai Indians had not won their opening game of an IPL season since 2012. That is fourteen years of slow starts, mid-season recoveries and playing catch-up. This time they came out swinging from ball one.
That is a different Mumbai Indians.
The Ground Is Going to Favour Big Scores.
Anyone who watched cricket at the Arun Jaitley Stadium last season knows what this pitch can do. Sunrisers Hyderabad scored 278 for 3 here against KKR. Two hundred and seventy-eight in a T20 match. The ball was flying to every corner of the ground.
Today’s match is on pitch number six. Same one. Bowlers get a little bit of help in the first few overs with the new ball. After that it flattens out completely and becomes a paradise for anyone holding a bat.
The toss is going to matter more than usual. Bat first and you set the target. Bowl first and you chase with the pitch still playing well. Both captains will have strong opinions about which way to go.
The one thing nobody can control is the weather. Delhi is looking cloudy this afternoon and there is a real chance of rain interrupting play at some point. If that happens and Duckworth-Lewis comes into the picture, the whole match changes. A target that seemed comfortable suddenly becomes very different when you have fewer overs to get there.
History Says Mumbai. But History Was Written by a Different Delhi Team.
These two sides have played each other 37 times in the IPL. Mumbai have won 21. Delhi have won 16. In the last five games between them, Mumbai have come out on top four times.
But look at the Delhi side today and compare it to the one that lost those games. Pathum Nissanka opening the batting is new. Nitish Rana at number three is new. David Miller in the middle order is new. Lungi Ngidi leading the pace attack is new. This is not the same team that built that losing record against Mumbai. Not even close.
Axar Patel is also a different kind of captain to what Delhi have had before. He is calm, he is tactical, and his own bowling gives him a weapon he can use personally at crucial moments in the game. You do not get that from many captains.
The Moments That Will Actually Decide This Match.
Rohit Sharma against Axar Patel is the matchup everyone with any cricket knowledge will be watching from the first over. Rohit does not like Axar. The numbers say so. In the IPL his strike rate against Axar is around 91 which for a batter of his quality is quite poor and he has been dismissed by him three times. Axar will fancy his chances and Rohit will know it.
Jasprit Bumrah against Delhi’s middle order is the other one. Bumrah is probably the most difficult bowler to score off in the world in the death overs right now. Against Miller and Stubbs and Axar himself he has been very difficult to get away. Delhi need someone to take him on and win that battle or they will find their chase getting very tight at the end.
The twist in that story is that Bumrah actually bowls worse at this ground than anywhere else he has played T20 cricket. His economy rate at the Arun Jaitley Stadium is 8.97 which is comfortably his worst at any venue. So maybe Delhi’s batters fancy it here more than they would elsewhere.
Lungi Ngidi is the third name to watch. He has been genuinely excellent this year. His death overs economy in T20 cricket this season is 6.84 which puts him among the very best in the world right now. He dismissed Nicholas Pooran with a slower ball in the last game that was already being called one of the balls of the tournament. If he does something similar to Rohit or Rickelton inside the first six overs today, Delhi’s day starts very well indeed.
Two Wins. One Stays. One Goes Home With Questions.
Delhi winning here would mean something real. It would confirm that the Axar Patel era has started properly, that the new signings are working and that this team can perform at home just as well as they did away in Lucknow. Two wins from two is a strong early statement in a ten-team tournament where the margins are tight.
Mumbai winning here would mean something even louder. It would mean the opening game was not just a one-off. It would mean Rohit and Rickelton can do it away from the Wankhede comfort zone. It would mean Hardik Pandya’s captaincy is genuinely clicking and that the rest of the IPL should take note early rather than waiting for Mumbai’s usual mid-season surge.
Someone is leaving Delhi tonight with four points and a growing belief in themselves.
The other one is going home to figure out what went wrong.
Toss at 3:00 PM. First ball at 3:30 PM. Arun Jaitley Stadium, New Delhi.
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- Prakash Nair
- Prakash Nair
- Prakash Nair
- Prakash Nair
