Mumbai, May 20: Considering the start they made to the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025, not many people would have imagined Mumbai Indians would be taking on Delhi Capitals in a must-win clash for the final playoff spot at the Wankhede Stadium here on Wednesday.

Delhi Capitals got off to a 4-0 winning spree while Mumbai Indians won only one in five matches and were at the opposite ends of the points table.

So, here they are gearing up to face off for the fourth and final spot in the playoffs to join Gujarat Titans, Punjab Kings, and Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the final four for the knockout stages of the IPL 2025.

After that horrible start, the Mumbai Indians have made a grand comeback, fighting their way back to the top of the table at one time with a six-match unbeaten run. Delhi Capitals, on the other hand, went off the boil, losing three matches, while a no result against Sunrisers Hyderabad did not help matters much.

Mumbai Indians are in fourth spot in the points table with 14 points from 12 matches, while Delhi Capitals have 13 points from as many matches. Both teams have one match more to play against Punjab Kings, but winning Wednesday's match will ensure MI a playoff spot while Delhi need to win both their matches to reach the knockouts.

With Jasprit Bumrah returning to the team after an injury layoff and with Ryan Rickelton and Rohit Sharma finding some form, the Mumbai Indians seemed to have solved the jigsaw puzzle. Their pacers have propelled MI ahead with Trent Boult leading the charge with 18 wickets and Bumrah and Hardik Pandya claiming 13 wickets apiece. Deepak Chahar has claimed 10 wickets while MI have found nascent talent in the Ashwani Kumar and Vignesh Puthur.

On the batting front, Suryakumar Yadav has been in superb form while Rickleton, Rohit Sharma, and Tilak Varma have done well in patches as MI surged ahead before Gujarat Titans halted their victory march just before the IPL 2025 went into a break.

Delhi have ridden on the brilliance of KL Rahul, who has struck a century and three half-centuries so far. Abhishek Porel, Tristan Stubbs, and Faf du Plessis also made some vital contributions. But somehow, they have lacked an out-and-out matchwinner. They had lost some momentum before IPL 2025 went into the break because of the security situation arising out of the India-Pakistan conflict.

Delhi have since played a match after the restart and lost to Gujarat Titans on Sunday, while Mumbai will be returning to action after two weeks.

The team that keeps its nerve on Wednesday will live to fight another day.

When: Wednesday, May 21 at 7:30 PM IST

Where: Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai

Where to watch: Star Sports Network (TV) and JioHotstar (live streaming)

Squads:

Mumbai Indians: Ryan Rickelton (wk), Rohit Sharma, Will Jacks, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya (c), Naman Dhir, Corbin Bosch, Deepak Chahar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah, Karn Sharma, Reece Topley, Raj Bawa, Robin Minz, Ashwani Kumar, Satyanarayana Raju, Mitchell Santner, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Krishnan Shrijith, Raghu Sharma, Arjun Tendulkar, Bevon Jacobs

Delhi Capitals: Faf du Plessis, Abishek Porel (wk), Sameer Rizvi, KL Rahul, Axar Patel (c), Tristan Stubbs, Ashutosh Sharma, Vipraj Nigam, Kuldeep Yadav, T. Natarajan, Mustafizur Rahman, Dushmantha Chameera, Sediqullah Atal, Karun Nair, Tripurana Vijay, Madhav Tiwari, Mohit Sharma, Mukesh Kumar, Ajay Jadav Mandal, Darshan Nalkande, Donovan Ferreira, Manvanth Kumar L.

(IANS)

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