IPL 2020 Final: Can Delhi Capitals up their game to beat favourites Mumbai Indians?

Defending champions Mumbai Indians’ hold the advantage in the final of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 over Delhi Capitals. Mumbai have no batsman in their ranks to individually match the towering display of the Delhi veteran Shikhar Dhawan but the Rohit Sharma-led side still holds an edge in batting on the strength of consistent middle order.

This article was originally published in IndianExpress.com

In contention for the Orange Cap, Dhawan has over 600 runs against his name. For Mumbai, there hasn’t been a single 500+ run aggregator during this year, but their top three batsmen edge out Delhi’s top trio in collective scores.

The battle of supremacy may eventually be decided by the pacers. A deep dive indicates that as the league has progressed, pacers have become more effective with a significant improvement in strike rate and economy.

Mumbai Indians is the most experienced team when it comes to playoffs. They have won this trophy 4 times and were beaten in the Finals by Chennai Super Kings in 2010. Delhi Capitals is looking for first win after 2 appearances in IPL.

Delhi’s Options

The main question ahead of IPL 2020 final is whether Delhi Capitals have it in them to halt the seemingly unstoppable Mumbai machine. Delhi’s story is known: a positive aura-building start was punctured midway through the tournament and they were left unsure about their best playing eleven. The problem largely centred around their batting though a few niggles have affected their bowling options also.

Will they open with Stoinis?

Prithvi Shaw’s failures forced Delhi to change the top order. They parachuted Ajinkya Rahane but he too wasn’t up to scratch initially. But the Qualifier against Hyderabad showed that Stoinis can own up the spot. However, Hyderabad’s attack had medium pacers; Mumbai will unleash Powerplay kings Trent Boult and Jasprit Bumrah at him. They have pace, swing, seam, bounce and if that doesn’t work, a quality leg-spinner in Rahul Chahar. If one of them takes out Stoinis early, Delhi will be bereft of firepower at the top and bottom.

Iyer and Pant in the middle

With Iyer’s form tapering off, Delhi’s middle-order muddle has worsened as seen in the last game. Iyer wasn’t able to find his touch and his sluggish approach threatened to lose them the momentum that Stoinis and Shikhar Dhawan had managed at the start. Rishabh Pant too has gone off boil; the bowlers have stopped bowling at his stumps, preferring to bowl outside off, out of his hitting range and making him try to swipe unsuccessfully.

Delhi Capitals Top Players

IPL 2020 Batsmen

Player	Inns	Runs	TS	100s	50s	Avg	SR
Shikhar Dhawan	16	603	106	2	4	46.38	145.65
Shreyas Iyer	16	454	88	0	2	30.26	122.37
Marcus Stoinis	16	352	65	0	3	27.07	149.15
Rishabh Pant	13	287	38	0	0	28.70	109.12
Prithvi Shaw	13	228	66	0	2	17.53	136.52
Shimron Hetmyer	10	180	45	0	0	25.71	150.00

IPL 2020 Bowlers

Player	Inns	Overs	Wks	BBI	4W	Avg	Econ
Kagiso Rabada	16	62.4	29	4/24	2	17.79	8.23
Anrich Nortje	15	58.2	20	3/33	0	24.35	8.34
Ravichandran Ashwin	14	47.0	13	3/29	0	27.92	7.72
Marcus Stoinis	12	27.4	12	3/26	0	21.66	9.39
Axar Patel	14	47.0	9	2/18	0	34.55	6.61

Mumbai Indians Top Players

IPL 2020 Batsmen

Player	Inns	Runs	TS	100s	50s	Avg	SR
Quinton de Kock	15	483	78*	0	4	37.15	139.59
Ishan Kishan	12	483	99	0	4	53.66	144.17
Suryakumar Yadav	14	461	79	0	4	41.90	148.23
Hardik Pandya	12	278	60*	0	1	39.71	182.89
Rohit Sharma	11	264	80	0	2	24.00	126.31
Kieron Pollard	11	259	60	0	1	64.75	190.44

IPL 2020 Bowlers

Player	Inns	Overs	Wks	BBI	4W	Avg	Econ
Jasprit Bumrah	14	56.0	27	4/14	2	13.92	6.71
Trent Boult	14	53.2	22	4/18	1	19.40	8.00
Rahul Chahar	15	53.0	15	2/18	0	28.86	8.16
James Pattinson	10	35.3	11	2/19	0	29.09	9.01
Krunal Pandya	15	47.1	6	2/26	0	58.33	7.42

IPL 2020 Points Table

IPL 2020 Results & Fixtures

IPL 2020 Stats

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