Delhi Capitals vs Sunrisers Hyderabad: Preview & Prediction

Delhi Capitals and Sunrisers Hyderabad
Delhi Capitals and Sunrisers Hyderabad players mingling together

The Indian Premier League is back in action and the fans have welcomed back the biggest cricketing festival in the world both from home and from the stands as well.

Defending champions Mumbai Indians lost to Chennai Super Kings in the first match of the second leg of IPL 2021 whilst the star-studded Royal Challengers Bangalore were humiliated by Kolkata Knight Riders as Virat Kohli’s men failed to put a total of three figures on the scoreboard.

The fourth match of the second leg of IPL 2021 will witness a fierce battle as the fans get to watch the replay of the last edition’s ‘Qualifier 2’ with Sunrisers Hyderabad and Delhi Capitals squaring off on Wednesday.

Delhi Capitals preview

The Ricky Ponting-coached side was on blistering form in the first half of the 2021 IPL as they won 6 of their 8 matches losing a couple of games by close margins against the Royals and the Royal Challengers as well.

Rishabh Pant will continue to captain the franchise for the rest of the season whilst welcoming Shreyas Iyer back to the fold after the former DC skipper missed the first leg of the tournament owing to injury. Ravichandran Ashwin will also return to the Capitals squad after the off-spinner withdrew from the IPL amidst the rising Coronavirus cases during the first leg in April.

In the overseas contingent, Ben Dwarshius has replaced Chris Woakes but Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje will be expected to take charge of the DC seam bowling department as they did in IPL 2020 which took place in the UAE.

Sunrisers Hyderabad preview

Sunrisers Hyderabad started their IPL 2021 season on the wrong foot as they lost the first three matches of the season, won a solitary match against Punjab Kings completely dominating the match but lost the next three matches including a super over battle against Delhi Capitals.

Jonny Bairstow pulled out of the second leg of the tournament very late and the franchise was forced to look for a replacement in the eleventh hour. Sherfane Rutherford has been drafted in for Bairstow but his English teammate Jason Roy is expected to play a more crucial role compared to the new Caribbean recruit.

David Warner had to relinquish the captaincy in the middle of the ongoing IPL season and New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson will be leading the side for the rest of the season.

Head to Head Record

DC holds a slight advantage in the head-to-head record

DC holds a slight advantage in the head-to-head record

Since the start of the 2019 season when Delhi Daredevils was rebranded as Delhi Capitals, Sunrisers Hyderabad and DC have played seven matches with two of those encounters taking place in the playoffs stage.

The Capitals have the edge over the Sunrisers in the head-to-head record as DC has won 4 of the 7 matches between the two top teams while SRH has won 3 of the 7 encounters with none of those wins coming in the crucial playoff matches.

Earlier in this season, the two sides played a tied match which went to the super over and Delhi Capitals came out on top as the in-form Jonny Bairstow was not sent to bat in the super over. Many fans and pundits cited this as a freak decision and the management of the franchise came under criticism from everyone.

Form Guide

Delhi Capitals: W/W/L/W/W/W/L

Sunrisers Hyderabad: L/L/L/W/L/L/L

Predicted Starting XIs

Delhi Capitals: Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant ©, Marcus Stoinis, Shimron Hetmyer, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Umesh Yadav

Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner, Wriddhiman Saha, Manish Pandey, Kane Williamson (C), Jason Holder, Abdul Samad, Vijay Shankar, Abhishek Sharma, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sandeep Sharma

Prediction

Both the sides have lost their momentum from the first leg of the IPL 2021 season and whilst one franchise would be very happy about it, it is not a piece of happy news for the Capitals. The UAE grounds have been a haven for the DC franchise as seen last season and they would be looking for more of the same starting with the battle against Hyderabad on Wednesday.

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