High-flying MI face Daredevils in crucial tie

Mumbai, May 4: With back-to-back victories in the last three encounters, a confident Mumbai Indians will aim to hold on to their winning touch when they face an inconsistent Delhi Daredevils in the Indian Premier League (IPL) match at the Wankhede Stadium here on Tuesday.

Mumbai will be coming into the match after a 23-run victory over bottom placed Kings XI Punjab on Sunday, whereas Daredevils will be low in confidence after their loss at the hands of Rajasthan Royals the other night.

The Rohit Sharma-led Mumbai are currently placed in seventh spot on the points table with eight points from nine matches, while Daredevils find themselves one spot ahead of Mumbai mainly due to a better run rate.

Mumbai will be glad their openers Lendl Simmons and Parthiv Patel have returned to form. The duo struck an impressive 111-run first-wicket stand against Kings XI on Sunday. Both hit fluent half-centuries to steer their team to a challenging score.

Skipper Rohit, under pressure after Mumbai’s sluggish start to the tourment, has begun to gel the team together.

The team’s overseas bowlers - Lasith Malinga and Mitchell McCleghan - have found consistency with the ball while home grown wicket takers Harbhajan Singh, Jagadeesha Suchith, R. Viy Kumar have also given a new account of themselves.

Mumbai will aim to keep the momentum going.

Delhi Daredevils have, however, struggled in every aspect of the game, highlighted by three dropped catches against Royals on Sunday.

Their bowlers also failed to function as a unit with big mes Zaheer Khan, than Coulter-Nile and spinner Amit Mishra going for plenty.

Batsman Yuvraj Singh, bought by Delhi for a whooping Rs.16 crore in the tourment-preceding auction, is yet to strike form, scoring just 146 runs from nine games.

The visitors will have their task cut out and will need to go all out against a strong Mumbai side to keep their play-offs hope alive.

Mumbai and Delhi share six wins from last 12 head-to-head encounters. IANS