The phrase déjà vu comes to mind when one looks at the performance of Mumbai Indians so far in IPL 2018. Played two games, lost two games.
This is something the Mumbai Indians always do. They are the most successful team in Indian Premier League history, but are also notorious for being very slow starters.
But every time they stage a marvelous comeback and go on to win the IPL. Rohit Sharma, the captain of Mumbai Indians would however want to start the winning as soon as possible, hopefully today against the Delhi Daredevils.
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The Daredevils have shown themselves to be one of the weakest teams in this IPL, along with Rajasthan Royals. We would be very, very surprised if they manage to beat Mumbai. Indeed, that would be the biggest shock in IPL history, especially considering how poor Delhi have been so far.
Their loss in the last match should rankle. Captain Gautam Gambhir was accused of running away from battle when he did not bat during the last run chase where 80 runs were to be made in 6 overs. He was mocked mercilessly on Twitter for this. He really has to do well in this game as his reputation is on the line.
For Mumbai, they have discovered a serious talent in leg-spinner Mayank Markande. His performances have been outstanding despite the two losses so far. One expects the young man to do well in this game as well.
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Hardik Pandya missed their last match. He has not regained full fitness yet as yet and did train much on Friday evening. Pandya only bowled a few minutes in the nets and batted for a little while longer. We expect him to miss out this evening’s match, in which case he will be replaced by the Australian all-rounder, Ben Cutting.
The Teams
Mumbai Indians: 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Evin Lewis, 3 Ishan Kishan (wk), 4 Suryakumar Yadav, 5 Krunal Pandya, 6 Hardik Pandya/Ben Cutting, 7 Kieron Pollard, 8 Mitchell McClenaghan/Pradeep Sangwan, 9 Mayank Markande, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Mustafizur Rahman
Delhi Daredevils: 1 Gautam Gambhir (capt), 2 Colin Munro, 3 Shreyas Iyer, 4 Glenn Maxwell, 5 Rishabh Pant (wk), 6 Chris Morris, 7 Vijay Shankar, 8 Rahul Tewatia, 9 Shahbaz Nadeem, 10 Mohammed Shami, 11 Trent Boult
Watch Mumbai Indians take on Delhi Daredevils tonight at 4 pm on Star Sports!
