The mighty Mumbai Indians are looking all set to win their fifth Indian Premier League title when they take on Delhi Capitals in the final, in Dubai on Tuesday.
Mumbai, who have won four IPL titles in the last seven years, stormed into the playoffs with a match to spare.
Not many will bet against Mumbai Indians in the title clash, given that they have already beaten Delhi Capitals three times in this tournament, twice in the league stages and then in the first Qualifier.
Mumbai's batting is firing on all cylinders, while their fiery bowling attack is capable of running through any batting line-up, but they will need to be wary of a wounded Delhi Capitals, who produced an emphatic performance against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the second Qualifier to make it to the final.
Harish Kotian looks at how Mumbai Indians can continue their winning run in the IPL:
Use Bumrah-Boult to attack Delhi and pick early wickets
Delhi's good batting show against Sunrisers Hyderabad in Qualifier 2 was down to their fine showing from their openers Marcus Stoinis and Shikhar Dhawan.
Opening has been a big headache for Delhi in this IPL and they finally seem to have got things right when they promoted Stoinis as opener, as he hit 38 from 27 balls and provided his team with the perfect start by adding 86 runs from 50 balls for the opening wicket with Dhawan, who went on to stroke 78 from 50 balls.
If Jasprit Bumrah and Trent Boult repeat their showing from Qualifier 1 when they took three wickets in the first two overs even before Delhi had opened the scoring, then there will be no stopping Mumbai from running away with another easy win.
The early wickets will put Delhi's middle order under pressure with the likes of Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant not in great form in the last few games.
Attack Ashwin in the early overs
Ravichandran Ashwin was the only bright spot in Delhi's poor showing against Mumbai in Qualifier 1, when the senior spinner took 3-29 in four overs.
He could once again be employed in the powerplay, hoping to make early inroads, and especially target left-hander Quinton de Kock.
With Delhi expected to save most of the overs from Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje for the death overs, Ashwin could bowl a couple of overs in the powerplay.
If Mumbai attack Ashwin early on, it would put Delhi on the backfoot straightaway and also force them to change their tactics.
Make most of the batting firepower in the death overs
The secret of Mumbai's success in the IPL in the last few years has been down to their power-packed batting line-up.
When playing against Mumbai, you don't need a couple of early wickets, you need four or five quick wickets to put them under pressure as any of their top six batsmen are capable of winning games on their own.
If the Mumbai top order and middle order build good partnerships, then it will set up things nicely for Ishan Kishan, the Pandya brothers and Kieron Pollard to go on an all-out attack.
Suryakumar Yadav holds the key role of building the Mumbai innings in the middle overs and if MI manage to reach the 15th over without too many wickets lost, then only god can save Delhi's bowlers!
Photographs: BCCI/IPL
