(Cricket news) DC look to avoid the mini covid scare they had in their camp as they take on PBKS. Mitchell Marsh and four members of the DC support staff had tested positive; a fourth round of RT-PCR tests was conducted on Tuesday morning but fortunately it returned with negative results. Further decisions will be made after another round of tests on the morning of the game. Both the sides haven’t had the best of starts this season as they will look to get their season back on track.
DC will be without Mitchell Marsh who was taken to the hospital after testing positive for covid. David Warner and Prithvi Shaw have given them valuable starts, but the middle order has failed to build on the foundation. Incidentally, the duo have added 67(45), 93(52) and 50(28) in their three outings so far. Their main problem this season has been filling up the number three void as Mitchell Marsh was supposed to occupy the position after his recovery from injury but Ricky Ponting and co have the same problem once again. Rovam Powell so far has been a major flop for the DC franchise and needs to show his worth to the team. In the bowling department, Kuldeep Yadav has been taking majority of the wickets but his spin-bowling colleague Axar Patel has just one wicket to show from 17 overs this season.
PBKS on the hand are the most aggressive side in the powerplay, scoring at 9.81 an over but are scoring at just 9.22 in the death overs, which is least by any IPL side this season. Barring Liam Livingstone, most other batters have struggled to keep momentum and end with a strong finish. He is PBKS top-scorer with 224 runs, striking at 185.12, but their next-best is Shikhar Dhawan, who has 205 runs, but has been only striking at 128.93. Shahrukh Khan and Odean Smith have particularly struggled to end with a flourish for their side. In the bowling Kagiso Rabada will hold the key, he has dismissed David Warner five times in 13 innings across all competitions. Warner only averages 19.20 against Rabada, but has a record of scoring 11-plus fifty-run against PBKS. He has scored 945 runs in 21 innings at 49.74, so Punjab will really hope to see the back of him early in the contest.
Pitch and weather report: The Brabourne Stadium has been a high scoring venue like we saw in the last between RR and KKR where 427 runs were scored. The trend of winning the toss and electing to field first will continue as the dew plays a major role in the venue. The temperature is going to hover around 33 degrees with no chance of rain.
Interesting facts:
- The overseas trio of Rovman, Seifert and Marsh have hit 69 runs at an average of 8.63, SR of 93.24 and a highest of 21.
- David Warner needs to hit four more fours to become the second player after Shikhar to score 100 fours against Punjab Kings in the IPL
- Prithvi Shaw needs 19 runs to reach 1500 runs in IPL
- Shikhar Dhawan (5989) is 11 runs away from reaching 6000 runs in the IPL
- Khaleel Ahmed needs five wickets to reach 100 wickets in T20 matches
Also read: Du Plessis and Hazelwood take RCB over the line against LGS
Probable XI for DC:
1 Prithvi Shaw, 2 David Warner, 3 Sarfaraz Khan/Yash Dhull/Tim Seifert, 4 Rishabh Pant (capt & wk), 5 Lalit Yadav, 6 Rovman Powell, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Shardul Thakur, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Mustafizur Rahman, 11 Khaleel Ahmed
Probable XI for PBKS:
Prabhsimran Singh, 2 Shikhar Dhawan (capt), 3 Jonny Bairstow, 4 Liam Livingstone, 5 Jitesh Sharma (wk), 6 Shahrukh Khan, 7 Odean Smith/ Benny Howell/Rishi Dhawan/Raj Bawa, 8 Kagiso Rabada, 9 Rahul Chahar, 10 Vaibhav Arora, 11 Arshdeep Singh
