Nitesh Rana’s Kolkata Knight Riders will travel to Arun Jaitley Stadium in order to face David Warner’s Delhi Capitals on Thursday in Match 28 of this season’s Indian Premier League.
Delhi’s current form is a reason for worry for Ricky Ponting, Saurav Ganguly, and co as their team isn’t performing well. When all the other nine sides have managed to record at least two wins, the Capitals have failed to register even a single victory thus far in IPL 2023.
The Knight Riders had mixed results in their initial five fixtures as they secured two victories and three losses but as the season is moving forward, their batting line-up is also getting settled.
What have they done so far?
Delhi Capitals are currently struggling to record a win this year. David Warner’s side is in the last spot at the points table after losing all five of their matches consecutively. They started their campaign with a one-sided 52-run loss against Lucknow Super Giants
In the next match, Hardik Pandya’s Gujarat Titans took down Delhi Capitals comfortably by 6 wickets. The third match was almost a replay of their first fixture as Rajasthan Royals posted a huge total with the help of innings from Jos Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal, which Capitals failed to chase and lost by massive 57 runs.
Their fourth loss came against Mumbai Indians which was also their best performance yet. The fans witnessed a last-ball thriller as Rohit Sharma’s men captured their first victory of the season. Capital’s recent match was against Royal Challengers Bangalore and following dismal batting, Delhi completed five losses in five matches.
Kolkata Knight Riders have also played five matches until now, but they have four points followed by a positive Net Run Rate. Under Nitish Rana’s captaincy, Kolkata started the campaign with a loss against Shikhar Dhawan’s Punjab by 7 runs.
However, in the next match, Knight Riders proved that they can win their third IPL title after they defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore by 81 runs. They then crossed paths with defending champions Gujarat Titans. Knight Riders would have lost the match but five sixes by Rinku Singh in the last over of Yash Dayal changed everything.
In their fourth match, Kolkata was defeated by Aiden Markram’s Sunrisers Hyderabad by 23 runs. Nitish Rana and Rinku Singh’s innings fell short in front of Harry Brook’s century. Their recent fixture was against Mumbai Indians, where despite getting a brilliant start following Venkatesh Iyer’s century, the finishers failed to capitalize on the opportunity.
With the help of innings from Ishan Kishan and new skipper Suryakumar Yadav, Mumbai Indians comfortably recorded their second win. Kolkata’s skipper Nitesh Rana and batsman Venkatesh Iyer are currently in brilliant form, hence, it is a piece of great news for the team. If we look at the bowling department, Suyash Sharma has been the key bowler for the side. However, he made his debut as an impact player. On the other side, Delhi Capitals are suffering in every aspect of the game.
Head to Head Record
Delhi Capitals and Kolkata Knight Riders have squared off against each other a total of 31 times. The Knight Riders have managed to be victorious a total of 16 times, while the Capitals have won the battle on 14 occasions, and once the match has resulted in no contest.
In last season’s Indian Premier League, the Capitals managed to win at both of the meetings. The teams met for the first time in the last edition on 10th April. Delhi Capitals won the match by 44 runs with the help of heroic innings from David Warner and Prithvi Shaw. In their next meeting after almost three weeks, the Capitals again found the edge with the help of Kuldeep Yadav’s bowling and Rowman Powell’s firey inning.
Key Players
Delhi Capitals’ skipper David Warner has been playing a crucial role in their batting line-up
David Warner (Delhi Capitals): Delhi’s skipper, David Warner has been the only scoring batsman in the initial five matches. However, he’s also not playing up to the expectations. The Australian batsman has been playing with a strike rate lesser than 120.
With the lack of support from other batters, Warner has also played the role of an opener as well as a middle-order batsman. However, Manish Panday’s performance in the last match should have given Ricky Ponting some hope but inconsistency can be a major reason behind the Capital’s demise.
Venkatesh Iyer (Kolkata Knight Riders): After a couple of bad performances in the initial matches, Venkatesh Iyer has taken off in the sky. After playing a spectacular 81-run inning against Sunrisers Hyderabad, he became the first batsman in 15 years to score a century for Kolkata after Brendon McCullum scored 158 runs in the first season of the Indian Premier League.
The southpaw is well-versed in playing in clutch situations as well as smashing huge sixes. Looking at his form, it’s highly likely that we’ll see more brilliant innings by the Indian batsman. Moreover, his strike rate stays around 200, which shows that he’s a huge asset for the side.
Predicted XIs
Delhi Capitals: David Warner ©, Mitchell Marsh, Manish Pandey, Sarfaraz Khan, Abhishek Porel (wk), Rowman Powell, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Khaleel Ahmed, Anrich Nortje, Mukesh Kumar
Kolkata Knight Riders: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana ©, Narayan Jagadeesan, Rinku Singh, Shardul Thakur, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy, Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee
Prediction
Kolkata Knight Riders are comparatively in a better position than Delhi Capitals on the points table. Also, their players are slowly catching forms that will most probably help him get over the Delhi Capitals’ challenge. The Capitals’ batting line-up has been constantly underperforming and if they want to win, they have to think out of the box.