Dubai: Delhi Capitals and Sunrisers Hyderabad face-off in their first game of the second phase of the Indian Premier League with two different agendas at the Dubai International Stadium on Wednesday. These two teams finished at opposite ends of the table during the first leg back in India. Delhi Capitals (DC) found themselves at the summit although have pushed to second by Chennai Super Kings while the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) was reeling at the bottom.
Delhi Capitals had everything on their sides despite the missing of their skipper Shreyas Iyer. The openers Shikhar Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw complimented each other perfectly while their bowlers especially with six wins in eight matches. The icing on the cake in these good times is probably the return of Iyer from his injury and he will be looking to take the charge. Avesh Khan has been a find for the side with the youngster teaming up superbly Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje to form a formidable pace trident. At this point, the Capitals have pretty much everything in place to secure their third consecutive playoffs spot.
Sunrisers Hyderabad on the other had an outing to forget managed just a single win so far. The replacing of captain David Warner and then dropping him halfway through the first leg was a sign of things not going well. Their bowlers had a few good outings especially star spinner Rashid Khan who will spearhead it alongside Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, it’s their batting that has let themselves down.
The missing of Jonny Bairstow is such a key factor at this time and it will be interesting to see how Sherfane Rutherford, the Englishman’s replacement does his job. Kane Williamson is undeniably holding the anchor for the side with his batting and leadership.
Sunrisers Hyderabad Squad: David Warner, Wriddhiman Saha(w), Kane Williamson(c), Manish Pandey, Vijay Shankar, Abdul Samad, Jason Holder, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Sandeep Sharma, Shreevats Goswami, Siddarth Kaul, Kedar Jadhav, Mohammad Nabi, Jason Roy, Shahbaz Nadeem, Virat Singh, Basil Thampi, Jagadeesha Suchith, Khaleel Ahmed, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Abhishek Sharma, Priyam Garg, Sherfane Rutherford
Delhi Capitals Squad: Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant(w/c), Marcus Stoinis, Shimron Hetmyer, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kagiso Rabada, Avesh Khan, Anrich Nortje, Ishant Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Amit Mishra, Umesh Yadav, Steven Smith, Sam Billings, Lukman Meriwala, Tom Curran, Ben Dwarshuis, Praveen Dubey, Vishnu Vinod, Kulwant Khejroliya, Lalit Yadav, Ripal Patel
