The North derby between Delhi Capitals and Punjab Kings at the Arun Jaitley Stadium couldn’t have come at the worst time for the home team. The Axar Patel led team is still looking for consistent runs from its batters, including the likes of Pathum Nissanka, KL Rahul, Nitish Rana, Sameer Rizvi, Tristan Stubbs and David Miller.
Against the only unbeaten team – the Punjab Kings, which is sitting top of the points table with 11 points, Delhi bowlers that mercilessly put to the sword by Abhishek Sharma in the last match in Hyderabad showed how the bowling line-up is faltering as well. Opener Sharma scored unbeaten 135 as Sunrisers Hyderabad posted 242/2 in 20 overs. Predictably, Delhi lost the match by 47 runs despite some fireworks from both Nitish and Rizvi.
The task against Punjab is tougher as four batters have been consistent on the scoring charts so far. Their openers – Priyansh Arya and Prabhsimran Singh have lit up the IPL from the start — both have scored 211 runs so far. While skipper Shreyas Iyer is scoring with a staggering strike rate of 182.45. Cooper Connolly too has notched up 223 runs. In contrast, the Delhi team is still looking for a settled playing XI, especially in the top order. Nitish Rana has replaced Karun Nair. And although Nitish came good in the last match against Hyderabad with a 30-ball 57, he couldn’t take his team past the winning target.
As a consequence the onus is on Rizvi to come good in each innings. Axar too has failed to contribute with the bat. In contrast to Punjab, the Delhi openers have a lot of catching up to do in terms of consistently giving their team a good start. Rahul has scored 205 runs but has been unable to take Delhi to a sizeable score. In the last match against Hyderabad, his dismissal while playing well with 37 started a collapse. From 107/1 in chase, Delhi was reduced to 107/4 in a space of four deliveries, which stunted the run making.
If the script follows the same pattern, the home team will struggle to cope against Arshdeep Singh and Vijaykumar Vyshak, who have found some form in the last few matches.
Can Delhi Capitals stop table toppers Punjab Kings
