IPL 2019, DC v SRH: 4 key battles to watch out for
Delhi Capitals and Sunrisers Hyderabad lock horns in the 16th match of IPL 2019 at Feroz Shah Kotla ground in Delhi. Both the teams have strong batting and bowling lineups, and would look to outplay each other in this match.
Sunrisers Hyderabad are coming in on the back of an absolute demolition of Royal Challengers Bangalore at Hyderabad, whereas the Delhi Capitals snatched defeat from the jaws of victory against the Kings XI Punjab in Mohali.
Delhi needed just 23 runs from 21 balls with 7 wickets in hand but still managed to lose the match by 14 runs. They would hope that that was a just a bad day at the office.
Sunrisers Hyderabad, on the other hand, would look to build the winning momentum and target getting to the top of the IPL points table. They would want to win a few games away from home and they certainly have the players for all types of conditions in the IPL.
Expected Playing XI: Delhi Capitals
Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Colin Ingram, Chris Morris, Axar Patel, Harshal Patel, Kagiso Rabada, Sandeep Lamichhane, Ishant Sharma
Expected Playing XI: Sunrisers Hyderabad
David Warner, Jonny Bairstow, Vijay Shankar, Manish Pandey, Yusuf Pathan, Deepak Hooda, Mohammed Nabi, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sandeep Sharma, Siddarth Kaul
Here are the key battles that can have a big impact on the match:
1. David Warner vs Kagiso Rabada
David Warner has been in tremendous form in his return to the IPL. He has scored 254 runs in just 3 matches with scores of 100, 85 and 69. He would look to ensure another good knock in the match against Delhi and widen the gap for the Orange Cap with the other contenders.
Kagiso Rabada, on the other hand, has also been in good form for Delhi Capitals, picking up wickets in both the powerplay and death overs. He would look to take out Warner early and put pressure on the SRH middle order, which has been untested so far.
2. Jonny Bairstow vs Sandeep Lamichhane
Jonny Bairstow has also had a dream start to his IPL career. He has scored his first century in his third innings for SRH, forming a destructive partnership with Warner at the top.
However, he starts a little slow against spin at the beginning of his innings, and Delhi would hope that Lamichhane gets him out early - which he so often does in the powerplay.
3. Rishabh Pant vs Rashid Khan
Rishabh Pant would like to forget the last game against Punjab as his wicket caused a collapse for Delhi and they lost 7 wickets for 8 runs. Pant is also known to struggle against leg-spin in his innings. and Rashid Khan would look to take out the young left-hander early and put more pressure on Delhi's middle and lower order.
4. Prithvi Shaw vs Mohammed Nabi
Prithvi Shaw was out on the first ball against Kings XI Punjab as he failed to read Ravichandran Ashwin's spin at the start of his innings. Mohammed Nabi, who took 4 wickets against RCB in the last match, would look for a similar outcome against Shaw and keep the young Indian batsman quiet.