Delhi Capitals (DC) and Mumbai Indians (MI) meet in the Indian Premier League at the Arun Jaitley Stadium (Feroz Shah Kotla) in Delhi on Saturday, April 4. MI are among the best teams in the history of the IPL, having won the title on five occasions.
They will be looking to extend their lead in this tournament and pick up a well-earned fifth title. DC, for their part, are still learning their curves in this tournament, and do not have the star power that the visiting side do. MI are also a more balanced outfit, both on paper and in form.
Predicted Teams
DC: KL Rahul (wk), Pathum Nissanka, Nitish Rana, Axar Patel (c), Tristan Stubbs, David Miller, Vipraj Nigam, Lungi Ngidi, Kuldeep Yadav, T Natarajan, Mukesh Kumar.
MI: Rohit Sharma, Ryan Rickelton (wk), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya (c), Sherfane Rutherford, Naman Dhir, Shardul Thakur, Mayank Markande, AM Ghazanfar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah.
Key Players
KL Rahul (DC): KL Rahul is among the most stylish and flamboyant players in the world. Many would pay to watch him bat. He is expected to open the innings for DC and take on opposition bowlers with flair. Rahul is also a handy wicketkeeper and can be a safe bet for DC behind the stumps.
Rohit Sharma (MI): Former India captain Rohit Sharma is known for taking on seam bowlers without any fear at all. Sharma is one of the best proponents of the pull stroke and can hit the ball out of the park by simply swivelling on his toes. Unless DC get Sharma out early, they will be in for a leather hunt.
Match Prediction
MI are the favourites to win this game, especially since they have already won their first game in this season’s IPL by defeating the Kolkata Knight Riders. The players in the MI squad have a lot of exposure to international cricket, and this makes them a threatening proposition at any stage of a game.
Gujarat Titans vs Rajasthan Royals – Indian Premier League Match Prediction (04.04.2026)
Gujarat Titans (GT) have not got off to a good start this IPL, losing their maiden encounter to Punjab Kings (PBKS) away from home. Rajasthan Royals (RR), meanwhile, defeated Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in a repeat of the final of the 2008 edition of the tournament.
Now, when these two sides clash in Ahmedabad on Saturday, April 4, a lot more than pride will be at stake. GT know these conditions better than their opponents, but RR’s good form will be hard to counter.
Predicted Teams
GT: Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (c), Jos Buttler (wk), Washington Sundar, Glenn Phillips, M Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Kagiso Rabada, Ashok Sharma, Mohammed Siraj.
RR: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Riyan Parag (c), Dhruv Jurel (wk), Shimron Hetmyer, Ravindra Jadeja, Jofra Archer, Nandre Burger, Sandeep Sharma, Ravi Bishnoi, Brijesh Sharma.
Key Players
Jos Buttler (GT): Wicketkeeper-batter Jos Buttler is among the most experienced players in the circuit. The Englishman can take bowlers on in the powerplay and is also sensible enough to rotate the strike when needed. The balance he displays in the top order is one of the reasons why GT are favoured to either put up or chase down a big total.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (RR): Opener Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is one of the players to watch out for in this IPL. The 15-year-old struck a 17-ball unbeaten 52 against CSK and is known to toy with opposition bowlers. The southpaw has no regard for bowlers of any experience whatsoever and picks up length extremely quickly, depositing balls comfortably out of the park.
Match Prediction
RR are the favourites given that their squad balance is much better than that of their opponents. The fact that their bowlers struck a good rhythm against CSK will give them a lot of confidence. For GT, the main factor will be how well their opening duo of Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan build a partnership and put up runs inside the powerplay.
Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Lucknow Super Giants – Indian Premier League Match Prediction (05.04.2026)
For Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), this game against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on Sunday, April 5, will be the first one at home after two successive away encounters. Quite naturally, they will be keen on acing in their familiar home conditions.
SRH’s batting unit is among the most deadly in this tournament, but LSG have a fine bowling attack too. The pitch in Hyderabad is expected to be a belter, and fine for batting, but it is the bowlers who maintain a good economy rate who will succeed.
Predicted Teams
SRH: Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan (wk/c), Heinrich Klaasen, Aniket Verma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Salil Arora, Harsh Dubey, Harshal Patel, Jaydev Unadkat, Eshan Malinga.
LSG: Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh, Nicholas Pooran, Rishabh Pant (wk/c), Ayush Badoni, Abdul Samad, Mukul Choudhary, Mohsin Khan, Mohammed Shami, Anrich Nortje, Prince Yadav.
Key Players
Travis Head (SRH): Opener Travis Head is among the deadliest batters in the world. The Australian is renowned for hitting balls from the back of a length and depositing them over deep midwicket and long on. Coming from Down Under, Head is naturally a good puller and hooker of the ball. He is expected to flourish in the good batting conditions in Hyderabad.
Rishabh Pant (LSG): Wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant, who is also the captain of LSG, will be one of their most important players. The southpaw is among the best spin-hitters in the country, and can also transform himself into manageable positions against seam. Behind the stumps, Pant is a safe bet and can be trusted to hold on to sharp chances, both against spin and seam.
Match Prediction
SRH are the favourites. In Hyderabad, they are known to build a fortress which very few sides have the ability to breach. The pitch at this stadium allows the batters in the SRH unit to play their shots fearlessly. They have four extremely talented power hitters in their ranks – Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Heinrich Klaasen and Nitish Kumar Reddy – and this gives SRH an advantage over any opponent.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru vs Chennai Super Kings – Indian Premier League Match Prediction (05.04.2026)
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) host Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in a southern derby at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Sunday, April 5, in the final match of this weekend. RCB are on a high after having beaten Sunrisers Hyderabad at home earlier.
They will be given a boost by the fact that CSK lost their opening encounter of this tournament by eight wickets to Rajasthan Royals. CSK are still struggling to find the right balance in their squad since Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been ruled out with an injury.
Predicted Teams
RCB: Virat Kohli, Philip Salt, Rajat Patidar (c), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Abhinandan Singh, Jacob Duffy, Suyash Sharma.
CSK: Sanju Samson (wk), Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Ayush Mhatre, Matthew Short, Shivam Dube, Kartik Sharma, Jamie Overton, Noor Ahmad, Matt Henry, Anshul Kamboj, Khaleel Ahmed.
Key Players
Bhuvneshwar Kumar (RCB): Seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar is among the most challenging bowlers to score runs against in the IPL. Kumar has the ability to swing the ball both ways to batters, and that too, at a decent pace. He is among the most stylish swing bowlers India has produced, and in this late stage of his career, RCB have benefitted from his services, both when the ball is new and old.
Shivam Dube (CSK): Shivam Dube was one of the stars for India in their title-winning ICC T20 World Cup campaign last month. The power-hitter is known to be deadly against spinners, who can hardly get their lines and lengths right against him. Dube has also improved his game against pace bowling of late, and no longer shies away from pulling the ball from the back of a length.
Match Prediction
At home, CSK will not be able to topple RCB. We expect RCB to win. They have the experienced Virat Kohli in their ranks, who will partner alongside the young Devdutt Padikkal to guide their side home with the bat in hand. In the bowling department, New Zealand seamer Jacob Duffy will be one to watch out for, especially after he bagged the player of the match award against SRH by picking up three wickets.
