New Delhi. This time too, it will not be easy for Delhi Capitals in the do-or-die match of IPL against Kolkata Knight Riders on home ground. Delhi will have to win the remaining four matches to reach the playoffs, while KKR will also have to win all five of its matches. In such a situation, it is important to see on which pitch the match will be played.
It is believed that to face the spin of Varun Chakraborty and Sunil Narine, the match can be played on pitch number six, which is helpful for Delhi batsmen, on which 264 runs were scored against Punjab Kings but there was no victory. This pitch may have been chosen due to lack of confidence in the batsmen, as Delhi had lost six wickets for nine runs on a seaming pitch against Bengaluru.
Varun-Naren’s challenge
On the slow wicket, Delhi’s batsmen could not play Gujarat’s Rashid Khan or Chennai’s Noor Ahmed and Akil Hussain. 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, who has taken seven wickets in ten matches, is also a worry for Delhi. In such a situation, the only option is to play on wickets that are helpful to the batsmen, which will give Delhi batsmen a chance to score big. Later, good performance in bowling will be expected from Mitchell Starc and Lungi Ngidi.
Rahul’s ‘run trust’ Delhi
KKR’s top order has also not lived up to expectations. Captain Ajinkya Rahane and Angkrish Raghuvanshi could not convert the good start into a big innings. The burden of batting has been on Rinku Singh only. For Delhi, KL Rahul has scored 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’s confidence in Nissanka, who has scored 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 nine wickets at an economy rate of 8.25.
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, Tejashwi Dahiya, Rachin Ravindra, Akash Deep, Blessing Muzarabani, Navdeep. Saini, Prashant Solanki, Finn Allen, Daksh Kamra, Karthik Tyagi, Sarthak Ranjan, Saurabh Dubey.
