IPL 2017: Mumbai Indians are favourites to win title, says Rahul Dravid

However, Rahul Dravid said Mumbai Indians will face a tough challenge from any of the three teams.

Written by: Sudipta Biswas

Updated: May 15, 2017, 12:33 PM IST

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फोटो साभार: BCCI

Delhi Daredevils mentor Rahul Dravid picked Mumbai Indians (MI) as the favourite to win the Indian Premier League (IPL) title, reported Hindustan Times. But, the former Indian skipper said they will face a tough challenge from any of the three teams-Rising Pune Supergiant, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders- who will play the eliminator and playoff.

“Mumbai (Indians) finished top of the table and are looking quite strong. But, Kolkata Knight Riders, Sunrisers Hyderabad, and Rising Pune Supergiant are all good sides and we can expect quite a few exciting matches in the play-off stage,” said Dravid after Delhi Daredevils’ 10-run loss to Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in their final match of the season on Sunday.

While talking about Delhi Daredevils campaign, Dravid said his team’s inability to win close matches was the main reason behind their disappointing run in the 2017 Indian Premier League (IPL) season.  Also read: IPL 2017: Ben Stokes will be missed in playoffs, says Steve Smith

“We were unable to win a lot of games from close situations and that proved to be our downfall this season. It is important to win this kind of games in the IPL and we could manage just 2-3 wins from those positions”, he said.

On Sunday, Delhi Daredevils were in a similar position as they needed to score 13 runs to win from the final over, but a brilliant over from Pawan Negi handed Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore the victory.

When asked about Daredevils performance on Sunday, Dravid said, “We kept losing wickets at regular intervals and the pressure of the required rate got to us. RCB bowled really well and we were unable to finish the game.” Also read: IPL 2017: Kings XI Punjab knocked out, Virender Sehwag blasts overseas batsmen

Daredevils suffered a big blow before the beginning of the tournament as they lost key players like De Kock and JP Duminy as they opted out of the tournament. Their absence was badly missed as Daredevils’ young batting line-up failed to win matches from crunch situations.