The battle-lines are drawn again between Mumbai Indians and Delhi Daredevils in the DLF-IPL-IV. It will spark straightaway once Virender Sehwag (422 runs and owner of the Orange Cap) marks his block and takes guard against Lasith Malinga (22 wickets and owner of the Purple Cap) at the Wankhede Stadium under lights here on Saturday.
Sehwag will be keen to outsmart Malinga having fallen a second-ball victim in the ICC World Cup final on April 2.
Arch-rivals
Mumbai and Delhi have been traditional rivals in the National championship for the Ranji Trophy. The extension nomenclature of ‘Indians' and ‘Daredevils' in the franchise and city-based competition with a large fan following has not in anyway taken the edge out of the intense contests since the inaugural event kicked off years ago.
In spite of the presence of a four-player overseas component, though not in all matches and seven-player Indian component, with non-Mumbai and non-Delhi registered players in its ranks, the home spectators have been thick and demonstrated a sense of fierce bond with their teams. The franchises went out of the way to retain their leading stars — Sachin Tendulkar and Sehwag — for IPL-IV and this factor has paid high dividends on the loyalty count.
The first-leg match between the two teams at the Kotla almost a month ago fizzled out into a tame affair following the run out of Sehwag by Tendulkar and the fast and fiery spell by Malinga in which he virtually dismantled Daredevils. Since scoring a first strategic psychological victory, MI has advanced to occupy the top-table position (14 points) after playing nine matches and is clearly on the way to making the play-offs while Delhi — with an impressive record in the preceding IPL editions — has floundered in the course of 10 matches and has turned out to be one of the biggest laggards.
Must-win situation
Daredevils, with eight points, has to score points in the remaining four matches beginning with a potentially high-voltage skirmish against the MI. After a break of four days, Daredevils will face Chennai Super Kings in a one-off match at Chennai, where Mahendra Singh Dhoni's team has dominated without allowing a smidgen of hope to rear its head for the visiting teams. Sehwag's team has to win these two matches in order to be in the running for the play-offs before taking on Kings XI Punjab at Dharamsala on May 15 and Pune Warriors at the Kotla on May 21. It beat both KXIP and the Warriors in the first-round matches.
This season's IPL has been fraught with peculiar and bizarre outcomes with the addition of two more teams in Kochi Tuskers Kerala and Pune Warriors and with not all teams drawn for home and away matches. As a consequence Daredevils — like Kochi Tuskers — is still in the fray, thanks to Sehwag's calculated execution of big shots against Ishant Malhotra (23 off six balls), Amit Mishra (53 off 24 balls), and Bharat Chipli (20 off six balls).
The race for the top will gain momentum in the remaining part of the 14-match league and MI with 14 points would fancy its chances of finishing among the Top two. It has five more matches to play with three home matches against Daredevils, Deccan Chargers and Rajasthan Royals and two away matches against KXIP at Mohali and Kolkata Knight Riders at Kolkata.
