Axar Patel has won the toss and the Delhi Capitals are bowling first against the Kolkata Knight Riders at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. The games are coming thick and fast for Delhi Capitals, who play their second game in just three evenings. Today, they welcome a Kolkata Knight Riders unit who look a little off the pace and a little low on confidence, not playing like the defending champions that they are. These are two teams in desperate pursuit of some positivity and some energy heading into the last portion of the season, with playoff spots on the line.
After their terrific start, DC have slid to three losses in their last five matches, a clear downturn in form and performance that has come at just the wrong time. Even after their loss to RCB on the weekend, there are some positives: they haven’t been run over by any team yet, managing to consistently keep themselves competitive, and turning a couple of those matches into wins. The concern that exists is that this isn’t a very settled team just yet: the opening combinations have chopped and changed, causing changes in the middle order, and it seems to be costing DC runs, especially while batting first. It is time for the think tank to crack down and decide what is the lineup that will see them through to the end of this tournament, to try and get all their batters amongst the runs and into a vein of form.
KKR, meanwhile, have been largely consistent with their batting, but it hasn’t mattered much when their batting has failed to fire. With a rain-abandoned match taking away the opportunity to let their batters find some groove, the opportunity presents itself at the Kotla, with its smaller boundaries. KKR are another team who need to figure out where exactly their strengths lie ahead of this crucial run-in. Is Angkrish Raghuvanshi the call at number four with Venkatesh Iyer struggling for form? Is Ramandeep Singh needed from the off when an extra bowler could be the move? KKR need to do a lot of work to figure out a combination that can allow their batting to find some sort of rhythm at the moment, because it has been an ugly slog in these last couple of matches thus far.
DC should not fail to make the playoffs from this point onwards, but it becomes increasingly shaky for them if they lose to KKR: it’s not an easy route for them after this match, and this is shaping up to be a season where 8 wins will be required to qualify. KKR need this win a lot more than DC, but a fourth loss will drag this team down into the midtable scrap for that fourth qualification spot, and neither of these teams wants to be caught up with that for too long. Plenty to fight over in Delhi.
Here are some highlights from DC vs KKR:
- Axar Patel has won the toss and Delhi Capitals are bowling first
