A little over a week into the tournament, the IPL fever is well and truly on! We’ve already witnessed some quality cricket and two absolute thrillers – our first encounter of the season against Punjab, and last night’s epic between the Rajasthan Royals and the Kings XI once again.

With the excitement around the tournament at its peak and two wins under our belt, the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi will welcome the Delhi Capitals for the first time as we take on Sunrisers Hyderabad.

A Tale of Two Starts

The Sunrisers are facing some troubles, having lost both their matches so far. On the contrary, we go into this fixture with the confidence of two incredible wins behind us. It is bound to play a role in body language and approach, and Shreyas’ men will certainly have a spring in their step and more positivity in their decision-making.

Having said that, the David Warner led Sunrisers are a top quality squad on paper, and will be raring to put points on the board. Additionally, they have the advantage of having already played on this surface previously, whereas the Capitals will be heading to the ground for the first time this season.

Stat-Attack

The Delhi southpaw Shikhar Dhawan, who played a crucial anchoring role in his 94-run stand with the young Prithvi Shaw in the last match, is just 3 sixes away from his milestone of 100 IPL sixes. He missed out the last time around, but Gabbar will be hoping to catch up with Suresh Raina to become joint-second on the list of most IPL fifties with 38.

Rishabh Pant’s highest IPL score, a mammoth 128* in 2018 came against the Sunrisers Hyderabad. Pant has scored 328 runs against SRH at a strike rate of 162 and a more-than-impressive average of 46.86. Who wouldn’t love to see him unleash himself tomorrow?

Our spin department of Axar Patel and Amit Mishra played an important role in putting the brakes on the Super Kings scoring rate the other night, and they’ll look to do the same with the Sunrisers’ middle-order tomorrow. Axar Patel is only giving away a scarcely believable 4 runs an over this season, an unreal number in modern-day T20 cricket. The experienced Amit Mishra was unlucky to not add to his wickets column the other night, and would love to make amends as he is just 3 wickets away from becoming the first bowler to pick up 100 scalps for the Delhi franchise.

The leader of the bowling attack, Kagiso Rabada is showing no signs of slowing down, neither with his pace nor with his rate of picking up wickets. Since IPL 2019, Rabada has the most number of wickets, with 30 to his name, he is four wickets clear of the second spot despite having played three fewer games. He also tops the list of players with the best bowling average and strike rate since last season. That’s KG for you!


Twitter Chatter

Thank you, Coach! Onto the next game 😎

 

Rishabh Pant fans everywhere 🤩 We’re all hoping to see some fireworks!

 

Protea Fire + Quality Spin = 💯

 

Key Battles

Rishabh Pant vs Rashid & Nabi

The flamboyant Pant’s approach against the Afghan spin duo Rashid Khan and Mohammed Nabi will be exciting to see. The explosive southpaw has a great record against SRH in the past, and he will look to build on it tomorrow night. In that endeavour, the way he plays the spinners will be a huge factor. If he can get a hold of them, the tides will turn in our favour in no time.


Warner & Bairstow vs Protea Fire

The Sunrisers have a largely top-heavy batting line-up, and the battle of the SRH openers against Rabada and Nortje will be an interesting one to watch. The South-African pacers have been at their lethal best, and knocking their openers off early will go a long way in our quest to start the tournament with a hat-trick of wins.