FANTASY
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Two of the most successful teams in the Indian Premier League (IPL) Mumbai Indians (MI) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) lock horns in the 27th match of the season at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi. After losing two in a row, MI bounced back with a comfortable win over Rajasthan Royals (RR), while CSK have now won five in a row and are currently at the top of the IPL 2021 table.
In the IPL, the two teams have clashed on 30 occasions and MI have won 18 of them. MI also have a superior record in the last five matches, having won four of them. In fact, CSK have managed to win just two of their previous 10 encounters against defending champions MI.
IPL HEAD-TO-HEAD
Overall - Matches – 30 | Mumbai – 18 Wins | Chennai – 12 Wins
Last five games – Mumbai – 4 Wins| Chennai – 1 Win
Suggested Teams
While you could go for the above team, you also have the option of choosing your own team from Cricket.com’s Fantasy Research Centre. Based on algorithms, we have come up with one team.
Ground Details and Team Combination
In the two matches played in Delhi so far, the teams batting first have scored 171 and on both occasions, that was chased down quite easily. The batting surface in Delhi is much better compared to Chennai, with players like Quinton de Kock getting back among the runs after a poor show down south.
In the two matches in Delhi, the pacers have taken over 61 percent of the wickets, but they have done so at a gap of 40.5 deliveries, 54.5 runs apart. However, while the spinners have taken fewer wickets, they have done it at more regular intervals – strike-rate of 27.6 and runs per wicket ratio of 46.4. They have conceded runs at 10.1 runs per over, compared to the pacer,s who have an economy rate of 8.1 in Delhi in IPL 2021.
Hence, it would be ideal to fill your side with good batsmen and have a balance between pacers and spinners.
There could be some interesting matchups too.
The match-up between Quinton de Kock and Moeen Ali could be an interesting one. Moeen has been doing the job for CSK with both bat and ball in the tournament so far and he will be up against South Africa ‘keeper, who roared back to form in the previous match with an unbeaten 70. The off-spinner has dismissed the southpaw thrice in T20s in six innings. Moreover, de Kock has managed to score just 35 off 25 at an average of 11.7 against Moeen in the shortest format. It will be interesting to see if Moeen is introduced early in the powerplay to deal with de Kock.
Faf du Plessis has been in impressive form this season and will have to deal with the pace and swing of Trent Boult early on in his innings. The former South Africa captain has been dismissed twice in seven innings by Boult, but what’s interesting is that he has scored at well less than run-a-ball against the Kiwi pacer. It could behoove MI if Boult manages to keep du Plessis quiet once again.
Captain Selection
Faf du Plessis will go into this match at the back of three continuous fifties. He has scored 270 runs at 67.50 and at a strike-rate of 140.62 – an indication that he is quite quick off the blocks. Du Plessis has been a prolific run-getter for CSK over the last 2-3 seasons, having scored 1,115 runs at a strike-rate of 134 since IPL 2019. He, along with Ruturaj Gaikwad, will be key for CSK at the top.
Our Criclytics player projector predicts du Plessis could score 47-71 runs in this match.
X-Factors
Lungi Ngidi has been excellent in his two matches this season so far, having already picked up five wickets. He picked up the crucial wickets of Manish Pandey and David Warner in the same over, to help restrict SRH to a chasable total to go with his three-wicket haul in his first match against KKR. He will once again be a crucial cog in CSK’s bowling line-up especially in the middle and death overs.
Our Criclytics player projector predicts Ngidi could pick up 1-2 wickets in this match.
Quinton de Kock was amongst the runs in MI’s win over RR in the previous match and it looked like the change from Chennai to Delhi did him a world of good. His unbeaten 50-ball 70 gave MI their third win of the season and he will once again have to be among the runs as MI’s middle-order has looked quite shaky throughout the tournament. Also, no player has scored more runs than de Kock (1,149) for MI since 2019, which speaks volumes about his consistency.
Our Criclytics player projector predicts Chahar could score 22-32 runs in this match.
Barring his off day in the season opener against RCB, Rahul Chahar has picked up at least a wicket in every match since. Chahar got the better of RR openers Jos Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal in a matter of two overs, after the duo got their team off to a rollicking start. The batsmen have often been left bamboozled by the leg-spinner and could once again be the case in this match.
Our Criclytics player projector predicts Chahar could pick up 2-3 wickets in this match.
