By IANS,
New Delhi : Delhi Daredevils face a do or die situation when they meet Mumbai Indians in their final Indian Premier League (IPL) match at Feroze Shah Kotla stadium here Saturday.
Daredevils will not only have to beat Mumbai Indians, but will also hope for other results to go their way, if they are to qualify for the semi-finals.
Statistical odds are stacked up against Daredevils, who at 13 points are placed fourth on the IPL points table.
Mumbai Indians, on the other hand, have 12 points but three matches still to go. Their last two matches are against Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers.
Mumbai Indians are in fine form and have clinched six victories on trot before Kings XI Punjab snapped their winning sequence in the last match by just one run.
Even if Mumbai Indians lose to Daredevils, they will still have two matches left to make up the loss and try to make it to the semis. In that case, Daredevils would have to hope that Mumbai fail in at least one match. One win in three matches will take Mumbai’s tally to 14 while Daredevils can edge past with 15 points if they win Saturday.
But Super Kings, who have 14 points and two matches yet to go – against Rajasthan Royals and Deccan Chargers – might also come into calculation provided they lose both their matches.
Mumbai Indians though will not like to go into the intricacies of mathematical calculation and would hope to carry on their fine form to pin down Daredevils at home.
Mumbai’s last match was the most thrilling in the tournament. Kings XI Punjab escaped with a narrow one-run victory. But one positive for Mumbai Indians was that Sachin Tendulkar got back his touch and almost saw his team through with a fluent 65.
Daredevils’ last match against Knight Riders was washed out and fetched only one point. The last two matches here have been affected by rain and the home team will pray that weather does not play a spoilsport Saturday.
Delhi Daredevils: Virender Sehwag (captain), Rajat Bhatia, AB de Villiers, Shikhar Dhawan, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Pradeep Sangwan, Daniel Vettori, Brett Geeves, Dinesh Karthik (wicketkeeper), Glenn McGrath, Farveez Maharoof, Shoaib Malik, Tejashwi Yadav, Yo Mahesh, Mithun Manhas, Amit Mishra, Mohammad Asif, Yogesh Nagar, Manoj Tiwary, Mayank Tehlan
Mumbai Indians: Sachin Tendulkar (captain), Loots Bosman, Ankeet Chavan, Siddharth Chitnis, Gaurav Dhiman, Dilhara Fernando, Harbhajan Singh, Sanath Jayasuriya, Dominic Thornely, Musavir Khote, Dhawal Kulkarni, Lasith Malinga, Abhishek Nayar, Ashish Nehra, Manish Pandey, Rajesh Pawar, Shaun Pollock, Saurabh Tiwary, Dwayne Bravo, Ashwell Prince, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohan Raje, Luke Ronchi, Pinal Shah (wicketkeeper), Swapnil Singh, Vijay Takawale (wicketkeeper), Robin Uthappa, Vikrant Yeligati