Rishabh Pant’s brilliant batting form and inspiring leadership resurrected Delhi Capitals will look to continue their upward match in the points table. They will face the inconsistent Mumbai Indians in New Delhi on April 27, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar

They both hail from the same state. They are friends since their age-group days. Donning different shades of blue, they have stood with their craft with the ball in an IPL dominated by towering totals.

No wonder then that the economy rate of all-rounder Axar Patel and pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah could well be decisive in the key clash between host Delhi Capitals and Mumbai Indians at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

After the 41st league match, Bumrah (6.37 runs per over in 32 overs) tops the list of best economy rate for bowlers with at least 10 overs this season, Axar is placed third in the list (7.06 runs in 31 overs).

Against a batting line-up full of power-hitters, the Gujarat duo will be looking forward to repeat the heroics performed at the Wankhede Stadium done earlier in the month.

Considering that both the teams are still languishing in the bottom half of the points table, a loss on Saturday could well push them into a must-win position for the remaining phase.

While the Capitals — with veterans David Warner and Ishant Sharma being unavailable due to fitness issues — will hope to carry on the momentum from Wednesday night’s win, Hardik and Co. will be keen on switching gears with time running out.

Barring Bumrah, the remaining bowling unit has been a huge concern. With an on-song Rishabh and Axar on fire with the willow along with Jake Fraser-McGurk’s range-hitting, captain Hardik will be banking on his bowling group to deliver against the odds.

The teams

Delhi Capitals: Rishabh Pant (c), David Warner, Abishek Porel, Ricky Bhui, Yash Dhull, Shai Hope, Prithvi Shaw, Tristan Stubbs, Kumar Kushagra, Swastik Chikara, Ishant Sharma, Jhye Richardson, Rasikh Dar Salam, Vicky Ostwal, Anrich Nortje, Mukesh Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Praveen Dubey, Khaleel Ahmed, Sumit Kumar, Axar Patel, Gulbadin Naib, Lalit Yadav, Jake Fraser-McGurk.

Mumbai Indians: Hardik Pandya (c), Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Dewald Brevis, Jasprit Bumrah, Piyush Chawla, Gerald Coetzee, Tim David, Shreyas Gopal, Ishan Kishan (wk), Anshul Kamboj, Kumar Kartikeya, Akash Madhwal, Kwena Maphaka, Mohammad Nabi, Shams Mulani, Naman Dhir, Shivalik Sharma, Romario Shepherd, Arjun Tendulkar, Nuwan Thushara, Tilak Varma, Harvik Desai, Nehal Wadhera, Luke Wood.

Match starts 3.30pm IST.

Sunrisers Hyderabad opener Travis Head in action during the Indian Premier League match against Delhi Capitals in New Delhi on April 20, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar

Jake Fraser-McGurk, the young Australian sensation, played a blinder to give Delhi Capitals a slim chance to pull off a miraculous chase. But the right-handed power-hitter proved to be an exception on a night dominated by left-handers.

Sunrisers’ left-handed quartet — openers Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma, all-rounder Shahbaz Ahmed and pacer T. Natarajan — ensured the Sunrisers climbed to the second spot with a facile 67-run win at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Saturday.

Head’s and Abhishek’s sensational strokeplay fetched a whopping 125 — the highest in the first six overs in T20 history. It was Sunrisers’ third 250-plus total of the season and also the fourth highest tally in the IPL. Despite spin twins Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel pulling things back immediately after the PowerPlay, the damage had been done.

Head blew hot from the word go. He missed a heave off Khaleel Ahmed’s first delivery but once he connected the next which sailed into the stands, the Capitals players were left fetching the ball from outside the boundary ropes. While Head stormed to his fifty in the third over, off just 14 balls, Abhishek made the most of the strike that came his way by going after Kuldeep, who was introduced in the fifth over. The PowerPlay overs saw Head and Abhishek hit 13 fours and 11 sixes and Capitals could bowl just five dot balls. Despite Kuldeep and Axar striking four times in 18 balls, Shahbaz and Nitish Kumar Reddy ensured the Sunrisers ended the innings on a high to post a daunting 266 for seven. Fraser-McGurk extended his previous night’s net session into a range-hitting exhibition to leave the fans spellbound. At the halfway stage, Capitals rattled up 138 and also had another left-hander — Rishabh Pant — at the crease. But the Capitals skipper was scratchy throughout, pegging the team back. Natarajan mopped up the tail to finish with figures of 4-1-19-4, his best in the IPL on a dazzling night for Sunrisers.

Teams

Delhi Capitals: David Warner, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Abishek Porel, Rishabh Pant (w/c), Tristan Stubbs, Axar Patel, Lalit Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Anrich Nortje, Khaleel Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar.

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen (w), Abdul Samad, Nitish Reddy, Shahbaz Ahmed, Pat Cummins (c), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mayank Markande, T Natarajan.

Riding on 20-run win over Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Capitals will start on a confident note during their Indian Premier League 2024 match against Kolkata Knight Riders.
| Photo Credit: PTI

The 20-run win versus Chennai Super Kings is an indicator of where Delhi Capitals was, is, and can be. The squad on paper and its performance in the first two matches was uninspiring and, according to assistant coach Pravin Amre, is inspired now and can do better.

That establishes that DC isn’t complacent having just outplayed the defending champion.

What caused the turnaround needn’t be examined forensically. For it may easily be attributed to its familiarity of its home ground. “We were here for two weeks (pre-season), and I think the first couple of weeks, there was a dew.

“But we were aware that there won’t be that much (dew) that day in particular, because it was windy. And I think that was an important decision to go there and bat first,” said Amre on the eve of his team’s clash against Kolkata Knight Riders here.

It’s with this kind of familiarity and the wind-supported swing that Khaleel Ahmed generates with the new ball that DC will take on the Knight Riders.

On the other hand, it might just be the right venue and match for Mitchell Starc to come good for the visitor. Starc against the DC openers would make for an interesting contest. As it would to watch DC trying to contain Andre Russell from muscling shots of mayhem.

Overall, it’s about if the newly confident DC can best a high-flying KKR.

The Teams (From):

Delhi Capitals: Rishabh Pant (c), David Warner, Prithvi Shaw, Yash Dhull, Abishek Porel, Axar Patel, Lalit Yadav, Mitchell Marsh, Pravin Dubey, Vicky Ostwal, Anrich Nortje, Kuldeep Yadav, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Khaleel Ahmed, Ishant Sharma, Mukesh Kumar, Tristan Stubbs, Ricky Bhui, Kumar Kushagra, Rasikh Dar, Jhye Richardson, Sumit Kumar, Swastik Chikara and Shai Hope.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Shreyas Iyer (c), KS Bharat, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Sherfane Rutherford, Manish Pandey, Andre Russell, Nitish Rana, Venkatesh Iyer, Anukul Roy, Ramandeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine, Vaibhav Arora, Chetan Sakariya, Harshit Rana, Suyash Sharma, Mitchell Starc, Dushmantha Chameera, Sakib Hussain, Mujeeb Ur Rahman.

Match starts at 7.30pm IST.

Delhi Capitals’ Rishabh Pant speaking to Chennai Super Kings’ M.S. Dhoni after the end of Indian Premier League cricket match between Delhi Capitals and Chennai Super Kings at ACA-VDCA stadium in Visakhapatnam on March 31, 2024.
| Photo Credit: K.R. Deepak

Half-centuries from David Warner (52, 35b, 5×4, 3×6) and Rishabh Pant (51, 32b, 4×4, 3×6), followed by Khaleel Ahmed’s brilliant first spell (3-1-9-2) helped Delhi Capitals beat Chennai Super Kings by 20 runs for its first win of the season at the ACA-VDCA Stadium here on Sunday.

Electing to bat, Capitals posted 191 for five as openers Warner and Prithvi Shaw laid the foundation with a 93-run partnership before Pant gave the final flourish.

In reply, CSK’s chase went off the rails immediately when left-arm pacer Khaleel (two for 21) removed openers Ruturaj Gaikwad and Rachin Ravindra in his first two overs as only 32 came in the PowerPlay.

DC vs CSK live score, IPL 2024

Revival

Ajinkya Rahane (45) and Daryl Mitchell (34) added 68 runs for the third wicket to keep the defending champion’s hopes alive. But just as they looked to get a move on, Axar Patel had Mitchell caught and bowled. Once Mukesh Kumar struck twice in as many balls to remove Rahane and Sameer Rizvi, it was nearly over for the Super Kings. The sell-out crowd was decked in yellow, and CSK’s fans, though, found some solace when M.S. Dhoni re-wound the clock and brought the roof down with a blistering cameo, smashing an unbeaten 37 (16b, 4×4, 3×6) that included some clean strikes down the ground. However, it came a bit too late for the Men in Yellow.

Earlier in the evening, Warner cut loose in the fifth over with a pick-up shot over midwicket for a six, followed by two boundaries through the off-side off Deepak Chahar. In the next over, Shaw slammed Mustafizur Rahman for a hat-trick of boundaries, as Delhi got to 62/0 in six overs.

Pathirana’s beauties

From 103/1, Delhi slumped to 134/4 as Matheesha Pathirana pulled things back for CSK when he delivered two inch-perfect reverse-swinging yorkers to knock over Mitchell Marsh and Tristan Stubbs in the space of three balls. But Pant ensured Delhi did not squander the start as he took down the Sri Lankan pacer for a six and two fours in one over to get to his half-century. The final flourish from the Delhi skipper meant his side had enough to hand Chennai its first defeat.