Defending champions Mumbai Indians will look to retain their title, while Shreyas Iyer-led Delhi Capitals will aim to achieve maiden glory when the two sides lock horns in the mouth-watering summit showdown of the 2020 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the Dubai International Stadium on Tuesday.
MI once again proved why they are the four-time champions by becoming the first team to qualify for the playoffs of this year's lucrative T20 tournament.The Mumbai Indians finished the league stage at the top of the IPL 2020 standings with nine victories from 14 matches.
Meanwhile, it was a roller coaster season for Delhi Capitals as they clinched seven victories from their opening nine games before slumping to four consecutive defeats. The Shreyas Iyer-led team, however, rebounded strongly to beat Virat Kohli's Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by six wickets in their last league stage match and finish at the second spot in the standings with eight wins in hand.
In the Qualifier 1, Ishan Kishan (55) and Suryakumar Yadav (51) smashed a half-century each before Jasprit Bumrah claimed a four-wicket haul to help Mumbai thrash Delhi Capitals by 57 runs in Dubai and book their place in the final of the tournament.
Delhi Capitals then swept aside Sunrisers Hyderabad (the winner of Eliminator between SRH and RCB) by 17 runs in Qualifier 2 on Sunday to storm into their maiden summit showdown of the IPL.
Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals have faced each other in a total of 27 matches so far. Out of those, Mumbai have emerged victorious on 15 occasions in contrast to Delhi Capitals' 12 wins.In fact, the Rohit Sharma-led team has also clinched victories in four out of the last five meetings against the Delhi Capitals, including the two league stage fixtures.
Ahead of the final match, let us take a look at some of a few intriguing stats ahead of the high-octane final clash:
- The final clash of the IPL 2020 will mark 200th appearance for Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma in the lucrative T20 tournament. He will become only the second player in the history of the tournament after Chennai Super Kings' captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (204) to achieve the feat.
- Indian opener Rohit Sharma is just eight runs short of becoming the first player for Mumbai Indians to complete 4,000 runs in the IPL. It is to be noted that Sharma has notched up 2,957 runs while serving as captain of the franchise.
-Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma requires 43 more runs to reach 3,000 runs as captain in the cash-rich league.
- Besides this, the Mumbai Indians skipper is 96 runs shy of reaching the 9,000-run mark in T20s. If he manages to do so in today's clash, he will become only the second Indian player to achieve the feat.
- Delhi Capitals skipper Shreyas Iyer has notched up a total of 454 runs, including two fifties, in 16 matches he has played so far this season. Heading into the clash, Iyer will look to score at least 46 more runs to cross 500-run mark.
- Iyer's teammate and opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan requires just 36 more runs to reach 1,500 runs for Delhi Capitals in the IPL.Left-handed batsman Dhawan has amassed a total of 603 runs, including two consecutive hundreds, to occupt the second position in the Orange Cap table.
-Mumbai Indians all-rounder Kieron Pollard is just two maximums short of completing 200 sixes in the cash-rich league.If he manages to hit those two sixes on Tuesday, he will become the first players from his side and sixth overall to score 200 IPL sixes.
- Wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock will also make his 200th T20 appearance during the summit showdown between Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals.
- De Kock requires just seven more runs to complete 6,000 runs in T20 cricket and needs 61 another runs to reach 2,000 runs in the Indian Premier League.
- Delhi Capitals star off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin needs just two more wickets to complete 250 wickets in Twenty20. If he takes those two wickets, he will become third Indian after Piyush Chawla (257) and Amit Mishra (256) to reach the milestones.
- Mumbai Indians' Ishan Kishan has scored a total of 483 runs, including 99 runs against the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in 13 matches he has played so far. Heading into the clash, he will look to cross the 500-run mark.
- Fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah is currently occupying second spot in the Purple Cap table with 27 wickets, including best figures of 4/14, from 14 matches he has played so far. He will look to come up with even better performance this time around in order to finish at the top of the leading wicket-takers list.
