Indian Premier League 2020 Final: Mumbai Indians favourite to retain trophy, Delhi Capitals eye maiden glory

Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals ended the league stage of the IPL 13 on the top two positions in the standing with nine and eight wins, respectively from 14 matches.

Image Credits: Twitter/@IPL

The 2020 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) had its moments so far and it has now reached its intriguing climax at the United Arab Emirates. Defending champions Mumbai Indians are all set to battle it out with first-time finalists Delhi Capitals in the all-important summit showdown at the Dubai International Stadium on Tuesday.

Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals have ended the league stage of the IPL 13 on the top two positions in the standing with nine and eight wins, respectively from 14 matches.

The defending champions became the first team to qualify for the playoffs of this year's lucrative T20 tournament after they finished at the top position in the points table. Delhi Capitals, on the other hand, had registered a six-wicket win over Virat Kohli's Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in their final league stage clash to qualify for playoffs.

In the Qualifier 1, Ishan Kishan (55) and Suryakumar Yadav (51) smashed a half-century each before Jasprit Bumrah claimed a four-wicket haul to help Mumbai thrash Delhi Capitals by 57 runs at the Dubai International Stadium and book their place in the final of the tournament.

Meanwhile, Delhi Capitals clinched a 17-run victory over David Warner's Sunrisers Hyderabad (the winner of Eliminator between SRH and RCB) in Qualifier 2 on Sunday to storm into their maiden summit showdown of the IPL.Shikhar Dhawan (78), Shimron Hetmyer (42) and Marcus Stoinis (38) produced decent performance with the bat to help Delhi post good total of 189 for three before Kagiso Rabada picked up four wickets to help his side restrict the David Warner's team to a score of 172 for eight.

While the Rohit Sharma-led team will look to add another trophy to their account, Delhi have made it to their maiden final and will be keen to achieve their first IPL glory.

Notably, MI has appeared in a total of 17 playoffs games in the history of the cash-rich league and won 11 of them, while Delhi have featured in eight playoffs matches and clinched victory in just two of them. 

While Mumbai have an experience of featuring in the big finals, Delhi will look to produce fearless brand of cricket as they displayed against SRH in Qualifier 2 in order to lift their first IPL title.

Talking about the two side's head-to-head record, Mumbai Indians hold a slight advantage over Delhi Capitals going into the mouth-watering final clash.

The two sides have locked horns in a total of 27 matches so far, with Mumbai emerging victorious on 15 occasions in contrast to Delhi Capitals' 12 wins.

As far as the last five meetings between the two teams are concerned, the Rohit Sharma-led team has clinched victories in four matches, while Delhi has won only one encounter.

In fact, Mumbai Indians have also won both of their two league stage fixtures against the Delhi Capitals this season.

Mumbai Indians first clinched a five-wicket win over Delhi on October 11 in Abu Dhabi before they continued their dominance over the Iyer-led side with a crushing nine-wicket triumph on October 31 in Dubai.

As far as the two sides' record at this venue is concerned, Delhi Capitals have won five out of 10 matches they played in Dubai.Mumbai Indians, on the other hand, have sealed victories in just two out of seven matches they played at this venue.

Important Milestones:

• Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma, who will be playing his 200th IPL match today, is just eight runs short of completing 2,000 runs for his franchise and 43 runs shy of reaching 3,000 runs as captain.
• MI all-rounder Kieron Pollard requires just two maximums to complete 200 sixes in the cash-rich league.
• Delhi Capitals skipper Shreyas Iyer needs 46 more runs to reach 500-run mark in this season of the IPL.
• Delhi opener Shikhar Dhawan is just 36 runs away to complete 1,500 runs  for his franchise in the lucrative T20 tournament.

When to watch?

The summit showdown of this year's IPL between Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals will kickstart at 7.30 p.m IST in the absence of fans amid COVID-19 pandemic. 

Where to watch?

The match will be telecast on Star Sports Network, while the live streaming of the tie will also be available on Star’s streaming application Hotstar.

Mumbai Indians vs Delhi Capitals, Dream11 Team Prediction:

Wicket-keeper: Quinton de Kock

Batsmen: Rohit Sharma (captain),Shikhar Dhawan, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer,

All-rounders: Marcus Stoinis, Hardik Pandya

Bowlers: Jasprit Bumrah, Kagiso Rabada,Trent Boult, Anrich Nortje

Probable XIs:

Mumbai Indians Probable XI: Rohit Sharma, Quinton de Kock, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Rahul Chahar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah.

Delhi Capitals Probable XI: Shikhar Dhawan, Marcus Stoinis, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Shimron Hetmyer, Axar Patel, R Ashwin, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Pravin Dubey/Harshal Patel.

SQUADS:

Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (C), Quinton de Kock (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Rahul Chahar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah, Saurabh Tiwary, James Pattinson, Dhawal Kulkarni, Aditya Tare, Mitchell McClenaghan, Chris Lynn, Jayant Yadav, Anmolpreet Singh, Anukul Roy, Mohsin Khan, Sherfane Rutherford, Digvijay Deshmukh, Prince Balwant Rai.

Delhi Capitals: Shikhar Dhawan, Marcus Stoinis, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer (C), Rishabh Pant (wk), Shimron Hetmyer, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Praveen Dubey, Harshal Patel, Prithvi Shaw, Daniel Sams, Mohit Sharma, Alex Carey, Avesh Khan, Sandeep Lamichhane, Keemo Paul, Tushar Deshpande, Lalit Yadav.