Delhi Capitals will lock horns with the bottom dwellers Sunrisers Hyderabad in the 11th match of the IPL 2020. Delhi Capitals under the captaincy of Shreyas Iyer and coaching of the Australian legend Ricky Pointing have been doing a great job and are yet to taste defeat this season. SRH on the other side have been struggling to get past the line and with their injury woes to key players like Kane Williamson and Mitchell Marsh has only made things worse for them.
Delhi Capitals after a very close finish in their first match against KXIP, which they won in the super over made a much lighter work against the CSK. The score of 175 seemed not enough against the standards of CSK but the batsmen of CSK failed once again making it two times in a row. Delhi Capitals will be looking to continue their reign at the top of the table.
The SRH team are having an uncharacteristic IPL season as they are usually in better position. The team has been struggling with both injuries and form issues of the players. The main headache for the 2016 title winners is the form of their captain David Warner and injury concern of the star middle-order batsman Kane Williamson. The middle-order seems to be in disarray even after the addition of Mohammad Nabi.
Can David Warner and Co. bounce back and once again show why they are a champion team? Or will the Delhi Capitals continue to stay undefeated?
Head to Head
Matches played- 15, DC- 6, SRH- 9, N/R- 0
Team News
The Delhi Capitals will go into the match once again without their lead spinner Ravichandran Aswhin. The off-spinner deemed himself fit to play but the captain Shreyas Iyer reported they wanted to give the Right-hander time to recover completely so that he could be available the whole of the tournament.
The injury of Kane Williamson has been a huge blow for the SRH and they would be hoping he can come back as soon as possible. With Priyam Garg not doing much favor for the SRH side, they could likely replace him with Virat singh who definitely could add the much required stability to the middle-order.
Pitch and Conditions
The pitch in Abu Dhabi when compared to Dubai and Sharjah is definitely on the slower side as the ground is yet to witness a 200 plus score as opposed to the other two grounds which have been all high scoring thrillers. Abu Dhabi could prove a bit of relief for the bowlers as they could get some material for it.
The weather as usual is reported to be clear with the rain gods having no intentions of playing spoilsport. The temperatures recorded have been lowered than the first week of the tournament as it is expected to hover around 31 degree mark as opposed to the 35 degree range which we saw in the first week of the tournament, The humidity though is said to be on the higher side, Which means due again will play an important role.
Probable Playing Xl
Delhi Capitals (DC): Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer (c), Shimron Hetmyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), Marcus Stoinis, Axar Patel, Amit Mishra, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Avesh Khan
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH): David Warner (c), Jonny Bairstow, Manish Pandey, Virat Singh, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Mohammad Nabi, Abhishek Sharma, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, K Khaleel Ahmed, T Natarajan
Key Battles
Shikhar Dhawan(DC) vs Bhuvneshwar Kumar(SRH)
The Indian Opener and former captain of SRH has had a mediocre first two matches. The left-hander is someone who can play the long innings once he is settled but he has not been to get going yet. He did show glimpses of his ability by scoring 35 runs against CSK. But given the standards of the South-paw he would be looking forward to converting the starts into big scores.
On the other side, Bhubaneswar Kumar would be thriving to bowl to his former captain. The 30-year old is someone who can take the ball away from the left-handers with his exceptional swinging ability. The South-paw is someone who loves to drive the ball more than anyone and infact one of his biggest strengths.
Will the former captain win the battle against the ever charming Kumar? Or will Dhawan fall prey to the out swinging delivery once again?
Jonny Bairstow(SRH) vs Kagiso Rabada(DC)
Jonny Bairstow had a wonderful first match but found the going tough against KKR as he managed to score only 5 runs of the 10 balls he faced. The English opener currently has the highest average in the tournament and is a very dangerous batsman from the opposition point of view. The DC will definitely be hoping to pick his wicket early.
If there is one person who can help DC accomplish that task. It is the South African prodigy Kagiso Rabada. The youngster has an outstanding IPL record and a decent economy. He was seen picking up the crucial wickets of inform Faf du Plessis of CSK and also added CSK Captain MS Dhoni and Star all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja to his victims list. The RIght-arm pacer is in prime form and will be looking to once again do the damage to the opposition.
Can the Hard-hitter dominate the spearhead? Or will the South African rip through the batting line-up of SRH?
Prediction
Two teams of contrasting standings take on each other and one could say given the form of Delhi Capitals it could be easy for them. But from what we have seen in this edition of Indian Premier League so far, there is no such thing as an easy win. Most of the matches have gone down the wire and this match does mean a lot to the Sunrisers as they would not want to lose three matches in a row.
Delhi Capitals seem to have a well settled team and Shreyas Iyer looks a much better captain now. With most of the players in DC in good shape, they would be hoping they can make it three out of three and stay at the top of the table.
Their only setback was the unavailability of Ravichandran Ashwin but DC having the experienced Amit Mishra as his replacement has made sure DC do not lack in the spin department.
Cricwizz predicts Delhi Capitals to win the match
