Preview DC vs MI IPL 2021, Match 13, April 20th, MA Chidambaram Stadium. DC vs MI head to head player stats and records. Team news and match predictions for DC vs MI.
Key match stats DC vs MI preview
Venue Stats – MA Chidambaram Stadium
- Average first innings: 163
- Average first innings winning score: 172
- Average powerplay score: 47
- All-time win % batting 1st vs batting 2nd: 61% / 37%
Find full venue stats and records here
Team form DC vs MI preview
- DC – WLW
- MI – WWL
- Previous meetings: IPL 2020, MI won by 5 wickets, MI won by 57 runs, MI won by 9 wickets and MI won by 5 wickets
IPL 2021 DC vs MI preview
We can’t preview a DC vs MI game without first talking about the obvious psychological stranglehold that Mumbai have over their opponents in this fixture. The reigning champions defeated DC no fewer than 4 times in last season’s IPL, including convincing wins in the playoffs and the final itself. On paper, this DC team has the potential to win IPL 2021 but it will be overcoming those kind of mental hurdles that will be their biggest challenge and you can bet that they’ll be looking to lay down a marker in this fixture.
One major advantage for MI going into this game is that they have had 3 matches at the MA Chidambaram Stadium to get used to conditions, whereas DC come straight off a comfortable win on Sunday on a batting paradise at the Wankhede and onto the low and slow tracks of Chennai.
The biggest positive for MI during their last couple of games is the resilience they have shown. They are playing nowhere near their best, particularly with the bat, and yet they continue to grind out results and defend par scores like all great teams do. DC meanwhile have had a couple of one-sided victories book ending a defeat by the Royals which was just the sort of low scorer they would have loved to win.
DC vs MI head to head player stats
DC bowling vs MI batting
I think it’s fair to say that we will see some fairly significant changes to the DC bowling attack for this game and this venue. They went into their opening match with a couple of spin options but quickly abandoned that in favour of 4 front line seamers plus Marcus Stoinis.
Unsurprisingly, Amit Mishra, like most spinners, has enjoyed bowling on this pitch and I would imagine that he will return to the playing XI vs MI who can also call upon Ravi Ashwin, a player who has taken 46 IPL wickets on this pitch more than any other player in the histroy of the tournament.
In fact, both Mishra and Ashwin have some very good head to head stats vs MI as shown in the graphics below.
Given that we’ve seen very little seam and swing in the opening overs at Chennai and the match-ups listed above, it wouldn’t be surprising to see both DC spinners bowling during the powerplay of this fixture.
One man who’ll be hoping to return to form is Ishan Kishan. The pocket rocket hit more sixes in the IPL last year than any other player but has struggled to get going in the opening 3 games. He can however, point to the fact that he has an excellent head to head record against DC’s regular seam options.
MI bowling vs DC batting
When previewing this match, the man that DC will fear most is surely Jasprit Bumrah who has a phenomenal head to record against several of their batsmen including captain Rishabh Pant.
The Capital’s opening partnership has provided a couple of match winning scores this season but again MI have a favourable head to head with Boult vs Shaw.
However, the real rock of the DC batting line-up not just this season but last year’s IPL too has been Shikhar Dhawan who only narrowly missed out on another century vs PBKS on Sunday. His head to head IPL record against all the Mumbai bowlers used so far in IPL 2021 is shown below and as you can see he alone out of his top order colleagues is a man who appears to enjoy playing against the most successful franchise in the tournament’s history.
DC have gone into the last couple of games with a fairly long tail that has seen them with the likes of Woakes/Curran at no.7 and Ashwin at no.8. Whether they persist with this tactic on the less batsmen friendly pitches of Chennai remains to be seen. They could opt to play Stoinis and Lalit Yadav as their 5th bowler allowing them another middle order batsman and a bit more hitting power at the back end of the innings.
All IPL player head to head records can be found here
