After two consecutive defeats, against Punjab and Kolkata respectively, Delhi Capitals (DC) will aim to put their campaign back on track when they face a struggling SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) here on Tuesday.
The last time the two sides squared-off in the season, the David Warner-led SRH came out victorious by 15 runs. However, SRH’s campaign derailed afterwards while the Shreyas Iyer-led DC fired collectively to come close to qualifying for the playoffs. Another win would further strengthen DC’s position at the top of the points table.
The DC top-order has succumbed under pressure in the recent past, except Shikhar Dhawan, but he too failed against Kolkata. The same was the issue with Ajinkya Rahane, who was promoted to open the innings in absence of Prithvi Shaw.
Iyer has been in good form but the lower middle-order, comprising Rishabh Pant and Shimron Hetmyer, has struggled after making a comeback.The bowling looks quite lethal with the likes of pacers Kagiso Rabada and his compatriot Anrich Nortje. Spinners Axar Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin did not execute their plans well against Kolkata but the duo knows how to get back into the groove.
On the other hand, SRH need to win all their remaining games and they would be hoping that all other permutations and combinations go well at the Dubai International Cricket stadium.
The main concern with SRH lies with their over-dependence on skipper Warner, Jonny Bairstow, Manish Pandey, and Vijay Shankar. While Pandey and Shankar are doing well, the former have struggled. They need to live up to the expectations.
With Jason Holder back in the team, he would provide some strength to their lower middle order and the Caribbean skipper has also been impressive with the ball.
T Natarajan and Khaleel Ahmed have done well in the absence of an injured Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Rashid Khan will once again spearhead the spin attack and could pose some serious threat for the Delhi batters.
On saturday, Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) bowling unit on Saturday rose to a big challenge and defended a small total with help of sharp fielding to pip Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by 12 runs in an Indian Premier League (IPL) encounter after a dramatic collapse. However, The SRH bowlers were once again exceptional and fired in unison especially Rashid Khan (2/14), Sandeep Sharma (2/29) and Jason Holder (2/27)
The collapse of the batting might be an area of concern that SRH should aim to rectify,
Nevertheless, the fixture is going to be mouthwatering and thrilling.