With back-to-back wins giving them some momentum, the Delhi Capitals will hope their batters complement the bowling unit as they eye a season double against Sunrisers Hyderabad in a battle of IPL laggards on Saturday.
The two teams are coming into the match following DC’s nail-biting seven-run win on Monday, and SRH will be eager to return the favour and snap their three-match losing streak. Skipper David Warner marshalled his troops well against his former team the other day, using the spin of Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav to strangle the chase, with seamer Mukesh Kumar holding his own in the final over while defending 12 runs.
While Ishant Sharma and Anrich Nortje too bowled well, the spin duo of Axar and Kuldeep gave away just 43 and snapped three wickets in the eight overs between them in the middle overs. However, the batting let them down, with Manish Pandey and Axar Patel managing to lift the Capitals to 128 for five from 62 for five.
While skipper David Warner has done the heavy lifting on most occasions, his innings lacked the usual finesse, as he faced the most dot balls in the powerplay this IPL. The fact that Delhi have struggled to get a steady opener at the other end has only extended his worry.
The other day, Phil Salt tried, but he was out for a duck, while Mitchell Marsh looked good during his short stay against SRH, but 31 runs in five innings tell his story.
Sarfaraz Khan and Aman Hakim Khan, too, have struggled, and had it not been for Axar, things could have been embarrassing for Delhi in the IPL.
The spin all-rounder has proved to be more than a handful with the bat, and DC needs to promote him up the order to fully utilise his skills. SRH, on the other hand, looked like winning for a major part of their last match, but things went downhill quickly as a slow start to the chase proved costly in the end. Mayank Agarwal has two 40-plus scores so far, while Rahul Tripathi has faded since hitting a 74 not out against the Punjab Kings. Abhishek Sharma, too, has struggled to score runs. Skipper Aiden Markram and Heinrich Klaasen, too, have not been able to do much, and SRH will have to strengthen their batting to have any hopes of a turnaround.
It is the bowlers who have looked more in sync as the spinners have complemented the seamers. If Bhuvneshwar Kumar was on the money with 2 for 11 the other day, spinner Washington Sundar was simply sensational when he snapped three wickets in the 8th over to leave DC at 72 for five, and they will hope to dish out another good show with
the ball.
