Mumbai Indians are in second place, but the gap between them and Delhi Capitals is only two points

At the Vadodara Cricket International Stadium on Tuesday evening, second-placed Mumbai Indians and fifth-place Delhi Capitals will clash against each other. India will play its sixth game, whereas Delhi will participate in its fifth, with both teams aiming for survival. Although the Mumbai Indians are placed second on the Women's Premier League (WPL) table, the difference between them and Delhi is only two points.

Ahead of the game, let us examine how poor individual performances in the tournament have put both teams in such a situation.

Batting performances

Mumbai Indians

When it comes to batting performances from the Mumbai Indians, Harmanpreet Kaur stands atop with impressive figures of 199 runs scored in five matches at an average of 66.33 and a strike rate of 148.5. However, Nat Sciver-Brunt has managed an average of 38.50, whereas Nicola Carey scored 137 runs in five matches, which can be called decent at maximum. Other players such as Amelia Kerr, Hayley Matthews, and G. Kamilini, who were expected to score big, have fallen short so far.

Delhi Capitals

Moving on to Delhi Capitals’ batting display, Lizelle Lee is the only player in the top 10 run-scorers’ list, standing fourth on the table with 167 runs from four matches. The rest of the firepower, including Shafali Verma, Laura Wolvaardt, and Chinelle Henry, have struggled to turn the game in their favour. Despite good strike rates, their averages in the range of 30 have not helped the team because the team needed regular big scores, which they failed to deliver.

Bowling performances

Mumbai Indians

The strong point and different factor of the Mumbai Indians is that most of their players can deliver with both the ball and bat. When it comes to picking wickets, Amelia Kerr stands atop with 10 scalps, whereas Nicola Carey and Sciver-Brunt have seven wickets each.

Delhi Capitals

However, the situation is very different at the camp in Delhi. The only notable wicket-taker so far has been Nandini Sharma with nine scalps. Unfortunately, the rest of the lot, such as Shree Charani, Marizanne Kapp, and Shafali Verma, have four or fewer wickets to their names.

Who needs to do what?

For Delhi, it is of utmost importance that Shafali Verma, Laura Wolvaardt, Lizelle Lee, and Jemimah Rodrigues dominate the Powerplay overs. However, the players must be careful of the new ball, which is a deadly weapon in the hands of the Mumbai Indians bowlers. Delhi, having played one game less, has the opportunity to turn things around for itself.

On the other hand, Delhi Capitals can no longer go into the game with a “hang-on” attitude. The team has displayed better-balanced performance and needs to capitalise on it with only two matches left in the round-robin stage if they wish to win the trophy.