The 14th edition of the IPL has been absolutely exhilarating. We are done with the first set of venues for the tournament and the teams will now move to Ahmedabad and Delhi. The next match we have is between the Delhi Capitals and the Royal Challengers Bangalore. It will take place at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on 27th April.
Delhi Capitals are in fine form. Apart from the game against Rajasthan, they look extremely settled. Delhi currently sits comfortably on the number two spot in the points table. They have won 4 out of their 5 matches this year, the most recent one being a fortnight ago against the Sunrisers Hyderabad. It was a super clash that was eventually tied but DC won the super over and got their well-deserving two points.
Royal Challengers Bangalore on the other hand is coming into this game at the back of a huge loss against the Chennai Super Kings. After having won four games in a row, they succumbed to a huge 69 run loss against the men in yellow. RCB will surely consider this as a small blip in their campaign. Virat Kohli and Co. will be looking to put this loss behind them and get back to winning.
Delhi Openers Are In Form
Delhi Capitals are on song at the moment and their openers have been doing most of the scoring. Shikhar Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw have scored 50% of the runs for the Capitals this season. Other than these two there have been a few good scores from Steve Smith. Apart from that none of the middle-order batters have been actually tested. This can certainly be an issue for DC. If their top order fails on any given day we do not know how well the middle order can handle the situation. Rishabh Pant has been batting sensibly scoring runs at a good rate. He is certainly going through a purple patch and the team will want him to continue.
Royal Challengers Bangalore had their worst nightmares come true. They went into this game with an extremely short batting order. Virat Kohli, AB de Villers, and Glenn Maxwell all three failed to score big. This meant that RCB failed to chase down 191. Devdutt Padikkal was their best batsman scoring 34 of just 15 deliveries. He got the team off to flier but then fell quickly. It again showed us the over-dependency of RCB on their star batsman to perform. Once all three departed no one was able to stitch partnerships and get the team on track. The management will certainly look to play an extra batsman in this game.
Purple Cap Holder Harshal Patel gets hammered
It was a poor outing for Virat Kohli’s side as they were practically beaten by the all-round show of just one man-Ravindra Jadeja. Not only did dismiss the RCB batsman cheaply but also smashed 37 runs in one over. Yes, you read that right Ravindra Jadeja smashed 37 runs in the last over of the innings. He did this to none other than the tournament’s highest wicket-taker Harshal Patel. The purple cap holder was having a field day before that over having picked up 3 wickets for just 14 runs. After the final over he was completely shaken.
Apart from that one over RCB bowled well throughout the other 19. They gave away too many runs in the beginning but did well to pull stuff back. They picked up a few wickets in the middle overs that titled the scales in their favour. One problem for them is the form of Yuzvendra Chahal. The Indian leg spinner has not looked at his best since the beginning of the tournament. The management will certainly back him and hope that he regains his form.
Delhi Capitals have bowled phenomenally. Barring one or two problems they look extremely settled. Avesh Khan has been their best bowler since the first game. He picked up 3 wickets in the previous game as well. Other than him Axar Patel had a great outing. He picked up 2 wickets for just 26 runs in his 4 overs. Not only that he also restricted SRH to 7 runs in the super over. One of the problems for DC will be Kagiso Rabada’s form. Last year’s purple cap winner has looked off-colour this year. He has not been able to pick up wickets during the powerplay and has gone for runs at the death.
Head To Head: Delhi Capitals (DC) vs Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB)
Total Played: 25
DC Won: 10
RCB Won: 14
N/R-1
Pitch & Weather Conditions
A decent pitch awaits the two sides at the Narendra Modi Stadium, with some help on offer for both the batsmen and the bowlers. The spinners should get the ball to grip and turn off the surface, which should make for an exciting contest between bat and ball in the middle overs. 160-170 will be a par score. The temperature is going to be soaring high. It will be about 42 degrees with 24% humidity.
Team News
Delhi Capitals (DC)– Ravichandran Ashwin has left the squad. Anrich Nortje might play in this game.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB)– Adam Zampa and Kane Richardson have returned home and therefore they will be looking for their replacements.
Squads
Delhi Capitals
Rishabh Pant (c & wk), Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Ajinkya Rahane, Shimron Hetmyer, Marcus Stoinis, Chris Woakes, R Ashwin, Amit Mishra, Lalit Yadav, Pravin Dubey, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Ishant Sharma, Avesh Khan, Steve Smith, Umesh Yadav, Ripal Patel, Vishnu Vinod, Lukman Meriwala, M Siddarth, Tom Curran, Sam Billings
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli (C), Washington Sundar, AB de Villiers (WK), Glenn Maxwell, Shahbaz Ahmed/Mohammad Azharuddeen, Kyle Jamieson, Harshal Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammad Siraj/Kane Richardson, Suyash Prabhudessai, Sachin Baby, Pavan Deshpande, Rajat Patidar, Dan Christian, Daniel Sams, Mohammad Azharuddeen/Shahbaz Ahmed, Finn Allen, KS Bharat, Kane Richardson, Navdeep Saini, Adam Zampa