‘We have skill and firepower to beat MI’
mumbai — Sri Lankan all-rounder Angelo Mathews on Friday said that misfiring Delhi Daredevils have the ability to beat formidable Mumbai Indians in their Indian Premier League match on Saturday.
Mumbai chased down a stiff 199-run target against Kings XI Punjab with 27 balls to spare at Indore on Thursday night.
“Mumbai have been playing extremely good cricket, as was the case last night (against KXIP). We certainly can beat them and we have the skill and firepower to do it,” said Mathews.
“If you look at the last 5-6 games Mumbai have played, they have been on a roll, home or away. It’s a tough ask but we have the firepower to do it. It’s just that we need to click,” Mathews insisted.
Asked about Mumbai’s death bowling specialist Lasith Malinga giving away more than 50 runs in two successive games, the fellow-Lankan said, “...anyone can have a bad day, especially in T20 cricket and it’s very difficult to be consistent throughout the long season of 14 games. Lasith has proved himself as one of the best bowlers in shorter format.
He will definitely come back.”
Mathews wished that more Lankans would turn out in IPL in the future.
“IPL is a very competitive tournament. The cream of international players play here. Obviously playing competitive cricket is very good, but unfortunately not many of us (Sri Lankans) are in IPL and hopefully more will be there in the coming years,” he concluded.