With the Indian Premier League 2025 approaching the threshold of its playoffs, a looming weather disruption threatens to overcast a decisive encounter between Mumbai Indians (MI) and Delhi Capitals (DC) during IPL 2025. With so much on the line, DC co-owner Parth Jindal has formally asked the IPL governing council to reschedule the match away from Mumbai in light of forecasted heavy rainfall and drawing parallels with a similar move for another match.
The Mumbai weather has become a serious issue, with the India Meteorological Department declaring a yellow alert for the city for the following four days. MI vs DC match, to be played on Wednesday night, has playoff stakes involved for both teams. A victory for MI earns them a playoff place, and a DC win keeps both teams in the race. But a washout would split points, sending MI to 15 and DC to 14, further muddying the playoff picture.
Shifting the Match
In an email to the IPL, Parth Jindal contended that the rain danger has been well known for almost a week, and consistency requires the change of this game as well, similar to the just-concluded RCB vs SRH match, which was rescheduled from Bengaluru to Lucknow owing to unfavorable weather.
“The weather forecast in Mumbai is for heavy rains, and there is a high probability of the game getting washed out,” Jindal wrote. As the match between RCB vs SRH has been shifted out of Bengaluru in search of consistency and the league’s interest, I request that tomorrow’s match too is shifted to some other place since we have known the better part of 6 days that the weather forecast for 21st in Mumbai is heavy showers.”
Precedent and Pressure
The storm in controversy comes on the heels of another brewing tempest in the league. KKR CEO Venky Mysore recently vented his frustration with the enforcement of the rain rule, crying that the new two-hour extension for finishing games arrived too late to save their own rain-abandoned game against RCB, just eliminating their playoff hopes.
As the league faces scrutiny over weather-related decisions, the pressure mounts on the IPL authorities to demonstrate uniformity and fairness in handling such situations. Whether they act on Jindal’s plea or not, the league’s integrity could be judged as much by off-field decisions as on-field performances.
