IPL 2020: DC vs MI Game Plan – Bowl Ashwin early and hold back pacers for the dangerous hitters

DC vs MI – The 51st match of the IPL 2020 tournament between the teams, Delhi Capitals and Mumbai Indians, could all be about match-ups. We take a look at a key game plan that could play a role in the 51st game of the IPL – DC vs MI

Powerplay Ashwin and more Nortje-Rabada in the middle?

After a slight stutter against Rajasthan Royals, Mumbai Indians were back to their best with a five-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bangalore. Suryakumar Yadav who has been in red-hot form came up with a sizzling 79 off 43 balls to take his side home safely.

The strength and depth of Mumbai’s batting line-up is a well-known one but most teams have failed to counter it. At least one of Quinton de Kock, Suryakumar Yadav or Keiron Pollard have fired in each match while the likes of Ishan Kishan and Hardik Pandya have also come up with useful contributions. This has meant that the team hasn’t really missed the presence of the ‘batsman’ in Rohit Sharma even though the regular MI skipper started the season on a pretty good note.

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While Mumbai have already qualified for the play-offs, Delhi Capitals have put themselves in a spot of bother after losing the last two matches. The batting line-up, in particular, has come up a cropper and lead the issues for Delhi. On Saturday, they have to make the work easy for their batsmen and restrict MI somehow to a gettable total?

Delhi can opt to open the bowling with Ravichandran Ashwin given the fact that both the Mumbai Indians openers’ are left-handers (As things stands with Quinton de Kock and Ishan Kishan). MI also have Saurabh Tiwary in the Top 4 to make it a favourable match-up for the off-spinner. Ashwin has already bowled quite a lot of overs during the Powerplay this season and succeeded too but he can actually start the proceedings with someone like Kagiso Rabada.

If Ashwin can remove one of the left-handers early, this will bring in Suryakumar Yadav. With a right-hander into the middle, Shreyas Iyer could possibly bowl even Axar Patel within the first six overs even though SKY is generally known to be an excellent batsman of spin bowling. Interestingly, Axar has a good record against Ishan Kishan so far and that might might make the decision easier.

This will allow Iyer to have a healthy amount of overs from Anrich Nortje and Kagiso Rabada for the middle and death overs phase. Although Hardik Pandya has improved considerably and Keiron Pollard is known as one of the smartest minds going around, pace and hard lengths will still trouble them. Quite often, it is the middle and death overs where opposition teams lose the grip against Mumbai Indians.

Like mentioned above, Hardik has improved against pace bowling but his numbers since IPL 2018 show the stark difference between him batting spin/medium pace and proper pace. This season, he has been quite good against the pacers but Anrich Nortje and Kagsio Rabada have been quite sensational in this season. While Nortje has been quite good during the Powerplay and middle-overs, Rabada has excelled in the middle and death overs. This provides a good combination for Shreyas Iyer.

To beat a formidable side like Mumbai Indians, Shreyas Iyer needs to get his tactics right. In the last few matches, he has been found wanting of coming up with the wrong match-ups. This can’t be afforded against Mumbai as they can take you down pretty hard in any phase of an innings.