(Cricket news) The main question the Hyderabad setup needs to answer is, will they bring back David Warner back into the playing XI? He was stripped off his captaincy midway through the season and then axed from the playing XI against Rajasthan Royals which has meant that he has suffered his worst IPL season by some distance. For SRH, chances of qualification look really grim with Kane Willamson and co needing to win all their matches to even stand a chance for qualifying for the playoffs. On the other hand Delhi Capitals will look to reclaim top spot from CSK, the welcome return of Sheryas Iyer might act as a boost for the team.
SRH's biggest miss is going to be their best batsman this season's Jonny Bairstow as he opted to focus on the T20 World Cup and Ashes. They have brought in West Indies explosive batsman Sherfane Rutherford as his replacement. Another major concern for SRH is their middle order as they haven't really shown any impetus to score runs or even take the team home in run chases. With Bairstow not playing, SRH management can use either Mohammad Nabi or Jason Holder to fill that void in the team. In the first leg SRH were hampered with injuries especially to their bowlers, this unwanted break might act as a blessing in disguise as they have near full strength bowling line.
The Delhi Capitals side will be looking for their maiden IPL trophy as this team almost have all the bases covered. They lost Chris Woakes but have replaced him with Ben Dwarshuis for the rest of the season, while left arm seamer Kulwant Khejroliya replaces M Siddharth. The DC management opted to stick with Rishabh Pant as the captain even though Sheryas Iyer is back to full fitness. The return of Iyer will be a boost for the team, and the balance of the team improves as he can play no 3 which could mean that they could bring back the South African duo of Anrich Nortje and Kagiso Rabada back together in playing XI. Warner vs Rabada will be a key battle to watch out for as Rabada has dismissed him 3 times in 39 balls but he has also conceded at a rate of 9.38.
Head to head: SRH 11 – 8 DC, the last time they played Delhi prevailed in a humdinger of a contest as the match went into a super over.
Pitch and Weather report: The Dubai International Stadium is a batting friendly surface like we saw in the last match and is expected to assist the batters again, pacers might get some assistance towards the latter half of the game and wrist spinners in both the sides might play a big role.The temperature will hover around 39 degrees as the humidity will be 55% with no chance of rain as of now. The dew factor could play a major role in the second innings.
Also read: Captain Samson fined Rs 12 lakh for RR's slow over rate against Punjab
Interesting facts:
- Amit Mishra will become the first player to feature in 100 matches for Delhi in the IPL if he plays
- Amit Mishra is only 4 wickets behind Lasith Malinga’s tally of 170 wickets to become the highest wicket taker in IPL history
- Rashid Khan has picked up 17 wickets in 12 matches in Dubai at an economy rate of 4.55
- DC have hit the fewest sixes (32) but have hit most fours also (132)
- Ashwin needs only one wicket to take 250 T20 wickets and in doing so he’ll become the only the third Indian bowler to do so.
Probable XI for DC:
1 Prithvi Shaw, 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Shreyas Iyer, 4 Rishabh Pant (capt & wk), 5 Marcus Stoinis, 6 Shimron Hetmyer, 7 Axar Patel, 8 R Ashwin, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Anrich Nortje, 11 Avesh Khan
Probable XI for SRH:
1 David Warner, 2 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 3 Manish Pandey, 4 Kane Williamson (capt), 5 Kedar Jadhav, 6 Abdul Samad, 7 Jason Holder/ Mohammad Nabi, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 T Natarajan, 11 Sandeep Sharma .
