The closest thing between Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Capitals ahead of their match in Sharjah on Friday is the margin of their last matches, standing at 57 and 59 respectively. But that is where the similarity ends. RR suffered a humiliating 57-run loss to Mumbai Indians while DC whipped Royal Challengers Bangalore by 59 runs. Needless to say, Delhi Capitals are in a much better frame of mind. Rajasthan Royals, naturally despondent after the loss, will be even more concerned about the manner in which their batting is faring, looking progressively more unsteady as the tournament progresses.
RR have scored 216/7, 226/6, 137/9, 154/6 and 136 in their matches in IPL 2020, and that pretty much says it all. They were all over the opposition for the first two matches and post that, they couldn't win an argument if they wanted to.
Two wins, followed by three straight losses puts RR just ahead of Kings XI Punjab on the points tally.
The batting has collapsed. Steve Smith and Sanju Samson, unstoppable in the first two matches, have just stopped. Jos Buttler, struggling early on, did find some runs against Mumbai Indians, but with the rest of the batting in shambles, that was to no avail.
The bowling is about as good as it was since the beginning, but the batting has simply evaporated.
As for Delhi Capitals, the batting really did come to the party against RCB, with almost all the top-order batter contributing, leading the Bengaluru side with no answers.
The DC batters had an excellent outing against Kolkata Knight Riders as well. Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, skipper Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant and Marcus Stoinis have been on point in the last two games, and as they say, a team is as good as their last match.
Delhi Capitals are second to Mumbai Indians on the points tally, but have played a match less, so this is a golden chance for them to top the ranks.
As for Rajasthan Royals, they need to find a way forward. With Sharjah being just the place for batsmen, this could be another slug-fest, where the batsmen will decide who wins this one.