When the Delhi Capitals (DC) play the Mumbai Indians (MI) at the legendary Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday, May 21, they will be without their normal captain, Axar Patel.
In the event that MI defeats DC on Wednesday, they will advance to the playoffs. The Capitals will be able to move into the top four on the points table if they win this game, but they won’t be guaranteed a spot in the playoffs.
Toss Update
Faf du Plessis, the stand-in captain, won the toss and opted to field first. The DC opener feels that the surface looks a bit dry. He also mentioned that his players are up for the challenge. Meanwhile, Hardik Pandya admitted that he would have bowled first had he won the toss. He said that the five-time champions have not played their best cricket yet in the competition.
Axar Patel misses out, Mukesh Kumar returns
Du Plessis said at the toss that Axar has been sick for the last couple of days. KL Rahul has been named among the Impact Substitutes and is expected to bat in the second innings. Bowling all-rounder Madhav Tiwari is making his debut for the Delhi-based franchise. Meanwhile, MI have brought in Mitchell Santner in place of Corbin Bosch
What did the captains say?
Faf du Plessis (DC)
(On Axar) Unfortunate for him, really sick in the last two days, down with flu, so we wish him all the best. He’s been excellent for us this season, and we’ll definitely miss him today. What an opportunity! If you ask any team, the last game of the season, you have a crack to get to the top four, you’ll smile and you’ll grab that opportunity with both hands. Playing a good team today, we are ready for it.
We haven’t been at our best in the last 5-6 games. Everyday there’s a new opportunity,. Looks a bit different to a normal Wankhede wicket, a bit dry, so we’re sticking with the tone of the campaign and chasing. Axar is not there, Axar is two players – fantastic spinner and a great batter, so it’s difficult to replace that. We don’t have a like-for-like. We’ll see how it goes.
Hardik Pandya (MI)
It’s been under covers for a couple of days, rain has been around. We would have liked to bowl as well, but it’s okay. Every game is important from now onwards. If we want to go ahead, we want to play our best cricket. The boys are very excited. On a lot of things, we’ve been spot-on.
(Best yet to come?) Yes, definitely, I don’t think we’ve had a complete game. We’d like to tick all the boxes, play some really dominating cricket. If we can do that tonight, it’d be very nice. They (crowd) have been fantastic. They have backed us even when we weren’t on a roll in the initial stage. One change, Mitch (Santner) comes, back, Bosch misses out.
Playing 11s
Mumbai Indians: Ryan Rickelton (WK), Rohit Sharma, Will Jacks, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya (C), Naman Dhir, Mitchell Santner, Deepak Chahar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah.
Impact Substitutes: Karn Sharma, Corbin Bosch, Raj Bawa, Ashwani Kumar, Satyanarayana Raju
Delhi Capitals: Faf du Plessis (C), Abishek Porel (WK), Sameer Rizvi, Tristan Stubbs, Ashutosh Sharma, Vipraj Nigam, Madhav Tiwari, Kuldeep Yadav, Dushmantha Chameera, Mustafizur Rahman, Mukesh Kumar.
Impact Substitutes: KL Rahul, Sediqullah Atal, Karun Nair, Tripurana Vijay, Manvanth Kumar
India
