### Key match stats 

**Pitch Stats – Arun Jaitley Stadium**

Average first innings score: 165
Average first innings winning score: 181
Average powerplay score: 48
Win % batting 1st vs batting 2nd: 46% / 51%

**Team form DC vs MI**

DC: LLL
MI: LL

Recent meetings: IPL 2022 - MI won by 5 wickets, DC won by 4 wickets 

### Preview DC vs MI 


![Screen Shot 2023-04-10 at 09.21.02.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/talesfrmthecrypt/244y69ctvfPj75ykdTAbiShe8QYsZwB4zDqBJzeRBXrftZHVMZxQA5oRou3r5xXJft7xV.png)


The full title of this post should really read, things can only get better... for one of these teams. After all, following Sunrisers victory yesterday, the loser of this match will hold the unenvious title of being the only team yet to record a victory in IPL 2023. 

That in itself should help make for a fascinating, albeit not necessarily high quality, game of cricket as both Delhi and Mumbai frantically look to jump start their respective campaigns. 

Both sides have been forced into early changes as a result of injuries, loss of form and in the case of Mitch Marsh, marriage! We've seen already this season that most teams are making more changes to their playing XIs from match to match because of the varied conditions that the return to home and away fixtures brings but these 2 franchises are still looking to find the necessary core of players to build upon. 

For the Capitals, only David Warner has stood up to be counted, scoring over 38% of his side's runs off the bat in their opening 3 matches. Unfortunately, they have all been rearguard knocks resulting in a strike rate of just 117. At the time of writing that's the lowest strike rate in the competition for any batsmen who has faced 70 balls or more and he's the only player to have faced that many deliveries and not yet struck a 6! 

In their latest defeat, Mumbai continued the trend of making a decent start and simply failing to carry that on. At 61 for 1 after the powerplay they were well set to go on and post a winning score but instead capitulated, losing 4 for 18 in the next 3 overs. 

To date, both these franchises have managed just a single half-century partnership each in IPL 2023 and you would imagine that the side that can correct that stat in today's match will have a very good chance of winning the game. 

|Team|50+ partnerships|100+ partnerships|
|-|-|-|
|GT|5|0|
|KKR|2|2|
|PBKS|4|0|
|RR|4|0|
|CSK|2|1|
|LSG|3|0|
|RCB|0|1|
|SRH|0|1|
|DC|1|0|
|MI|1|0|

*Most 50+ partnership in IPL 2023 (correct as of match 14)*

With ball in hand things aren't looking much better for either side. It's difficult to be overly critical of the Mumbai bowlers at this point in time simply because they've been given sub par scores to defend and the opposition has gone about their task with little difficulty. 

By contrast, DC have bowled first in 2 of their opening 3 matches and on both occasions conceded scores that were ultimately well out of their reach. The worry for them is that their bowling has been exposed in all 3 phases of the game during those opening defeats. Rajasthan took their powerplay attack apart in the last game following poor showings in the middle and death overs in the defeats to LSG and GT. 

There was enough lateral movement in the game at the Arun Jaitley stadium between DC and GT last week to suggest that both seamers and spinners should enjoy bowling on this surface albeit that the confidence levels on both sides are pretty low as things stand! 

### DC vs MI head to head

**MI bowling vs DC batting**

Jofra Archer sat out MI's last match as a precaution as he makes his way back to full fitness following a lengthy lay-off. As noted in my season preview of Mumbai, it was never likely to be the case that Archer would be available for the full campaign considering the way that England have managed him so far in 2023. 

Given Archer's fantastic record in white ball cricket against David Warner, MI will certainly want him on the pitch for this one!


![Archer vs Warner.gif](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/talesfrmthecrypt/23tbnXdpGzVkwpT1CyFyuAxmumF6Nb3jzTBmBE2skuD3ztBQoFVaddLbPWSUuREJTpvJB.gif)

*All Archer vs Warner dismissals in T20 cricket*

Archer has a similarly strong record against Prithvi Shaw (dismissed twice from 16 balls bowled) while Jason Behrendorff has accounted for Manish Pandey on a couple of occasions in T20 cricket as well. 

DC's 3 innings to date have all followed a very similar pattern. Lose early wickets in the powerplay to seamers and then struggle against spin for the remainder of the game. When you look at the options the Capitals have in the middle order and their respective T20 records against slow bowling then that isn't a major surprise and it's likely to be an issue for DC throughout this campaign. 

|Batsman|Ave vs spin|S/R vs spin|
|-|-|-|
|SN Khan|18.0|111.0|
|Lalit Yadav|20.0|92.0|
|MR Marsh|28.0|111.3|
|AR Patel|25.1|117.0|
|R Powell|22.6|110.1|
|MK Pandey|31.7|112.0|
|RR Rossouw|28.8|132.6|

*DC middle order batsmen T20 record vs spin bowling*

Of course the difficulty that Mumbai face is having experienced front line spinners to exploit this weakness. To date they've bowled 15 overs of spin and taken 2 wickets at a cost of 119 runs. 

Again, it would be unfair to be overly critical given that in both games, the spinners came on at a stage where the opposition were well in control of the run rate required. However, it does continue a pattern with MI spinners striking once every 22.9 balls last season, the 8th lowest spin strike rate in IPL 2022. 

**DC bowling vs MI batting**

As if things couldn't get any tougher for the Mumbai batsmen, they travel to a venue that several of them have struggled at in previous visits. Rohit Sharma averages a respectable 30 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium and his finest hour here undoubtedly came in 2017 when he struck 80 in 55 balls in an opening partnership of 158 for India vs New Zealand. How MI and Rohit would love a repeat of that! 


![Screen Shot 2023-04-10 at 09.12.45.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/talesfrmthecrypt/23xKhapesGxzcrb6gqEeDxNNFbx4PVJiB66XixAjSVpFXrkhkHbuNK1QhkHbfTd77iQH1.png)

*Sky IPL batting stats at the Arun Jaitley Stadium*

However, his opening partner for Mumbai, Ishan Kishan, has scored just 11 runs here in 3 innings with Suryakumar Yadav also having a very poor record in Delhi. 

While Ishan might not like playing in Delhi that's not to say that he doesn't like playing against them. Last season, 2 of the left-handers best performances came in the games vs the Capitals with scores of 81 not out and 48. 


![Screen Shot 2023-04-10 at 09.08.57.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/talesfrmthecrypt/23uFHAv8GrPziWXzXFPoPwzs59BJBGLEH9fqHGUTr83jySJrXRiJ6HyoTYoinByDiQzed.png)

*Ishan Kishan T20 head to head stats vs current DC squad*


You feel that if MI are to put in a good batting performance that he and Tilak Varma's wickets will be crucial given the 2 left-arm spinners that DC possess. Axar Patel in particular could prove  a major limiting factor against the right handers in Mumbai's line-up if he's given the opportunity to bowl primarily against them. 


![Screen Shot 2023-04-10 at 09.04.38.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/talesfrmthecrypt/23u5vab1idYkHcVS5uZr5ps81jyngWw5f8jsYd8toCtGYcxLQtFJkv2RHp8bbaC7wrw8q.png)

*Axar Patel T20 head to head vs Mumbai's primary right handed batsmen (Rohit, Sky, Green and David)*

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*All stats used in this blog are from my own databases which are freely accessible below 
[IPL head to head player stats](https://t20-head-to-head.com/ipl-head-to-head-player-stats/)
[IPL player stats by venue](https://t20-head-to-head.com/player-statistics-by-venue/)
[IPL stadium statistics](https://t20-head-to-head.com/statistics-by-ipl-venue/). 
Images are my own with the exception of [player profiles](https://www.iplt20.com/) and [highlights](https://www.iplt20.com/) within GIFs which are not intended to infringe copyright- [read full disclaimer](https://t20-head-to-head.com/copyright-disclaimer/). [Background images](https://pixabay.com/images/search/cricket%20stadium/) are used under a [creative commons license](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en) or otherwise royalty free.*