IPL 2021 Delhi Capitals vs Mumbai Indians April 20 Match Prediction

Match Predictions

Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals play a repeat of the IPL 2020 finals on April 20 as they take each other on in their first clash of the year. These teams are pretty familiar with each other after four clashes in 2020, and will have dynamic plans in place to test each other.

Delhi Capitals will be itching to make Mumbai Indians fight after four losses to them in 2020. It won’t be easy for a team that has major hiccups in the top order, but this is their best chance to possibly test Mumbai Indians, when their weaknesses have been exposed and their vulnerabilities more evident to other teams after the KKR game.

Interestingly, Delhi have the bowling resources to replicate KKR’s plans and test Mumbai’s middle-order that has often won them games. The availability of Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, and Chris Woakes will allow Delhi to go hard in the middle overs and deny Mumbai more overs of spin.

Overall records are in favour of Mumbai Indians but unsurprisingly, Delhi Capitals have actually done well against Mumbai. Mumbai have 16 wins as against Delhi’s 12 in head-to-head contests in the IPL. The massive bridge only came about in 2020 in UAE when Mumbai beat Delhi in all four encounters including two in the play offs. The second of those came in the finals of the tournament where Delhi still fought a bit before losing.

Team Previews

Delhi will likely go ahead with a three-prong overseas pace attack of Chris Woakes, Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje. They will have Marcus Stoinis as the fourth overseas player and will test Mumbai with pace and bounce. Ishan Kishan was arguably the difference between the sides last year but his returns have waned this year allowing Delhi to attack freely.

Mumbai, on the other hand, will be helped by the fact that the match is in Chennai where the surface gets slow enough for them to unleash possibly three spinners in Rahul Chahar, Krunal Pandya and Jayant Yadav, all different types of spinners, to trouble Delhi.

Summary

Mumbai might edge ahead on overall record and will certainly be basking in glory of their 4-0 record in 2020 over Delhi Capitals. However, this Delhi unit is different and capable of testing Mumbai if they get the XI right. That will take some doing, though, as they have managed to field less than impressive XIs in the build up to this contest. Can they turn that around and attack Mumbai with pace?