DC vs KKR: KKR-Delhi clash for the playoff race, the spin of Sunil Narayan and Varun Chakraborty will spoil the game.
Delhi. Delhi Capitals, which has failed on tricky pitches or has not been able to save big scores on good pitches, is not expected to get any respite even on home ground in the ‘do or die’ match of IPL against Kolkata Knight Riders on Friday. Delhi, which is ranked seventh with eight points from ten matches, will now have to win the remaining four matches to reach 16 points to make it to the playoffs.
KKR, standing at eighth position, will also have to win the remaining five matches. In such a situation, it becomes important on what kind of pitch this match of Delhi Capitals will be played. It is understood that to counter the spin of Varun Chakraborty and Sunil Narine, Delhi may play on batting-friendly pitch number six, on which it had scored 264 runs against Punjab Kings but still could not win.
The reason for choosing this pitch is the lack of confidence in the batsmen who had lost six wickets for nine runs against Royal Challengers Bangalore on a seaming pitch. On the slow wicket, Delhi batsmen could not play Rashid Khan of Gujarat Titans or Noor Ahmed and Akil Hussain of Chennai Super Kings.
Pathum Nissanka, Sameer Rizvi or Karun Nair may face problems in front of Sunil (economy rate 6.80) and Varun (economy rate 8.88). The poor form of Kuldeep Yadav is also a cause of concern for Delhi, who has been able to take only seven wickets in ten matches at an economy rate above ten. In such a situation, the batsmen have no option but to play on wickets that are helpful to them.
This will give the host batsmen, who are struggling with poor form, a chance to score big. Later, good performance in bowling will be expected from Mitchell Starc and Lungi Ngidi. On the other hand, KKR’s top order has also not been able to live up to the expectations. Captain Ajinkya Rahane (205 runs at a strike rate of 131.42) and Angkrish Raghuvanshi (268 runs at a strike rate of 137.43) could not convert good starts into big innings. The responsibility of batting has been on Rinku Singh (245 runs at a strike rate of 145.39).
For Delhi, KL Rahul has given his best performance in IPL, scoring 445 runs at a strike rate of more than 180, but on the other hand, batsmen like Abhishek Sharma and Vaibhav Suryavanshi are scoring runs at a strike rate above 200. The team management’s continued faith in Nissanka, who has managed to score only 228 runs in nine matches, is beyond comprehension.
Karun Nair and Nitish Rana are not in form. In bowling, Mukesh Kumar, T Natarajan and Aqib Nabi have proved to be expensive. No Delhi bowler could take wickets in double digits and the best bowling was done by captain Akshar Patel who took 8. Has taken nine wickets at an economy rate of 25.
Teams:
Delhi Capitals: Abhishek Porel, KL Rahul, Nitish Rana, Sameer Rizvi, Tristan Stubbs, Axar Patel, Ashutosh Sharma, Dushmantha Chameera, Kuldeep Yadav, Mukesh Kumar, Vipraj Nigam, Mitchell Starc, David Miller, Oqib Nabi Dar, Pathum Nissanka, Lungi Ngidi, Sahil Parakh, Prithvi Shaw, Kyle Jamieson, Tripura Vijay, Madhav Tiwary, Ajay Jadav Mandal, Karun Nair, T Natarajan.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Manish Pandey, Rovman Powell, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Ramandeep Singh, Rinku Singh, Sunil Narayan, Anukul Roy, Vaibhav Arora, Umran Malik, Varun Chakraborty, Cameron Green, Mathisha Pathirana, Rahul Tripathi, Tim Seifert, Tejasvi Dahiya, Rachin Ravindra, Akash Deep, Blessing Muzarabani, Navdeep Saini, Prashant Solanki, Finn Allen, Daksh Kamra, Kartik Tyagi. Sarthak Ranjan, Saurabh Dubey. Match at 7 pm. Will start from 30th.
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