Delhi Capitals Strive For Consistency Ahead Of SunRisers Hyderabad Clash
Delhi Capitals contrived to lose a match against Kings XI Punjab which they had no business losing.
Highlights
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Skipper Shreyas Iyer would be hoping to sort out the batting woes
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A new-look Delhi Capitals made an impressive start to IPL 12
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SunRisers Hyderabad have been on a roll with back-to-back wins
The frailties in Delhi Capitals' (DC) batting line-up were exposed as they suffered a dramatic lower-order collapse against Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) on Monday. Skipper Shreyas Iyer would be hoping to sort out the batting woes and strive for consistency when his team faces a galloping SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) in their Indian Premier League (IPL) encounter at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium on Thursday. A new-look Delhi Capitals, who look rock-solid on paper, made an impressive start to IPL 12 with a superb win over three-time former champions Mumbai Indians but since then their lower-order batsmen have struggled to finish the job. Delhi Capitals are currently fifth on the IPL points table with two wins and as many loses after four games.
On the other hand, SunRisers Hyderabad have been on a roll with back-to-back wins.
The marauding pair of Jonny Bairstow and David Warner smashed centuries as SunRisers Hyderabad inflicted a 118-run defeat on Royal Challengers Bangalore with a destructive display of batting at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Sunday.
Moreover, Warner and Bairstow have been sharing century-plus opening stands in all their three matches so far.
After a 118-run opening stand against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in a losing cause, Warner and Bairstow continued their dominance up the order with 110-run and 185-run partnerships against Rajasthan and Royal Challengers Bangalore.
After the six-wicket defeat to KKR in their opener, SunRisers roared their way back into the tournament and would be eyeing a hat-trick of wins on Thursday.
However, Delhi Capitals failed to score six runs from the last over against KKR, thus taking the match to Super Over and it was only due to Kagiso Rabada's superb yorkers, they had managed to scrape through in the end.
Delhi Capitals then lost seven wickets for eight runs against KXIP and Iyer would look to plug the holes in the batting line-up to stand a chance of taming SunRisers.
Delhi were 144 for three in the 17th over, chasing 167 before being bowled out for 152 in 19.2 overs.
"I am really speechless. Really disappointing. It is a crucial match and losing such matches is not going to benefit us. Mentally we need to train ourselves - we are getting good starts, need to finish better," Iyer had said.
The real contest on Thursday would be between Delhi pacers and SRH's opening pair.
Teams (from):
SunRisers Hyderabad: David Warner, Jonny Bairstow, Manish Pandey, Deepak Hooda, Shakib Al Hasan, Vijay Shankar, Yusuf Pathan, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar (capt), Sandeep Sharma, Siddarth Kaul, Kane Williamson, Martin Guptill, Ricky Bhui, Shreevats Goswami, Wriddhiman Saha, Shahbaz Nadeem, Mohammad Nabi, Abhishek Sharma, Basil Thampi, Billy Stanlake.
Delhi Capitals: Shreyas Iyer (capt), Colin Munro, Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Hanuma Vihari, Colin Ingram, Manjot Kalra, Chris Morris, Sherfane Rutherford, Keemo Paul, Axar Patel, Jalaj Saxena, Rahul Tewatia, Rishabh Pant, Ankush Bains, Sandeep Lamichhane, Avesh Khan, Harshal Patel, Trent Boult, Amit Mishra, Kagiso Rabada, Ishant Sharma, Nathu Singh, Bandaru Ayyappa.
Match starts at 8pm (IST).
(With inputs from PTI)
Delhi Capitals
Sunrisers Hyderabad