India to play two warm-up games in Australia

SRH vs DC: What Experts said as desperate Sunrisers send alerts to Capitals' camp

The Delhi Capitals did not play the game against the Sunrisers Hyderabad as a side positioned at the number two on the points table on the Indian Premier League and looked a side without any concrete backup plans or tactics to contain the opposition batsmen. The bowling attack that has been quite menacing in the season so far looked lackluster as the Sunrisers’ opening pair of David Warner and Wriddhiman Saha took a liking to them and piled on the agony for Shreyas Iyer and Ricky Pntong. Here we have compiled the views of the captains after the game was finished along with some of the best experts' views about the game between the Sunrisers Hyderabad and the Delhi Capitals. Captains’ take Discussing the outcome of the game and the impact it could bring to his side, the losing captain Shreyas Iyer pointed out the level of the loss the Delhi Capitals had to endure in the game. However, he also raised the expectations from his team and also shed lights on his perspective as the captain of the side and said that the team just needs a win from the remaining two games to see through to the playoffs and that the side does not have to feel the pressure just yet. “Definitely a big loss, but you can't get bogged down at this point of time. We still have two games. One win is all we need - we've been waiting for that since the last three games. This loss is definitely going to motivate us,” Iyer told the host broadcaster Star in the post-match interaction. Pinpointing the moments of the game that took the game away from his side, Iyer pointed out that the Capitals lost the game pretty early when the bowling attack conceded runs in excess of 70 ithin the powerplay overs. Iyer’’s decision to bowl first ahd raise eyebrows given the opposing captain Warner was looking to bat first, but he refused to call the decision a mistake, even with the benefit of a hindsight and rather said that the nature of pitches in the tournament so far have been interesting and that he has found it tough to read pitches correctly in the season so far. “It's really difficult to judge what to do on this wicket - it's probably better to lose the toss. [In jest] unfortunately I lost the toss and we thought of the dew. We obviously discuss a lot about the opposition batsmen,” Iyer said while defending his decision to bowl first. The Capitals have their tasks cut out in the remaining two games scheduled against the Mumbai Indians and the RCB but he has exalted confidence in his team, albeit with air of caution. “Any team can surprise any team in this tournament. you can't underestimate anyone, especially at the business end of the tournament. RCB is a good team but we must also remember we've beaten them before,” Iyer said while accepting the challenges his side is facing in the next two games. The winning captain David Warner expressed the tough call he had to take before the game of dropping Jonny Bairstow’s flamboyance for the stability of Kane Williamson. He also discussed at length the mindset he was in while he walked out to bat with Saha at the top of the order and said that he tried to go so far back in time to 2009 and looked to clear his stance by opening his front leg to give himself more access to the ball while going for big shots. He spoke highly of the two best performers of the game-- Rashid Khan and Wriddhiman Saha. “What a knock by Wriddhi. His strike rate in the powerplay is incredible,” Warner said about Saha’s swashbuckling innings in the post-match presentation ceremony. He also pointed out that the men in orange have two remaining games scheduled in Sharjah and showed ocnifidence in his team that they can post huge totals on the board considering the amount of runs they scored in Dubai against the Delhi Capitals inthis match. “Two games in Sharjah to go. If we can get 220 on the board here, who knows what we can get there,” Warner added in his post-match presentation interaction. Experts’ take Cricket analyst Joy Bhattacharya pointed OUT ON twitter the long list of Sunrisers’ players who have left the IPL 2020 due to injuries and reminded the level of competence in the squad that the team is still in the hunt for the playoffs spot. Cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle was left wondering if the Delhi Capitals are running out of wind to compete for so long in the tournament given their huge margins of defeats in the last three games. He suggested that the team needs to come back stronger but the challenges on its hands seem to have gone bigger with the remaining clashes scheduled against the RCB and MI. Veteran cricket journalist Sambit Bal reminded the cruelty of the IPL and how quickly situations can turn around for teams as he wondered the probability of Delhi Capitals’ elimination from the tournament after having entered into the second half of the league with a promise to top the league stage.

IPL 2020 | SRH vs DC: Saha, Warner, Rashid annihilate Delhi Capitals

Delhi Capitals hit their third stumbling block on the trot as Sunrisers Hyderabad bulldozed them into a soul-crushing 88-run defeat in the 47th match of the Indian Premier League. Wriddhiman Saha was a revelation for his 45-ball 87 to set the stage on fire along with David Warner's explosive fifty as SRH posted a mammoth 219/2, the highest total in the ongoing edition. Rashid Khan then cast a spin web, rooking out otherworldly figures of 4-7-3-0 comprising 17 dots to lend the orange army an NRR fillip. If a side boasting of truckloads of firepower is apprehensive of targeting you, that too with a mountain to climb ahead, you can give yourself a pat on the back.

IPL 2020 | SRH vs DC: Hits and Flops as Saha, Warner dismiss Delhi with disdain

The Sunrisers Hyderabad annihilated Delhi Capitals in Dubai by 88 runs on the back of swashbuckling batting from the opening pair of David Warner and Wriddhiamn Saha followed by an insane spell of bowling from Rashid Khan where he yielded only seven runs for three wickets in four overs. Touted as the team to beat this season, the Delhi Capitals looked a confused side on the field and in the end, were made to look like a side so unlike their performances in the season so far and the team management would hope that these defeats are not a sign of a team that peaked too early in the tournament. Here are the best and the worst performers of tonight's game. Hits Wriddhiman Saha Induced back into the playing XI in place of an off-colour Jonny Bairstow, Saha fulfilled the purpose by showing intent from the word go. Saha has been a very underrated batsman and does not find a place in the playing XI regularly even after having an impressive record in the history of the league. He was in the mood to correct all that in the game against the Delhi Capitals as he stamped his authority on the Delhi’s bowling line-up which has shown impeccable potency so far in the tournament. He was on the money from the first over and took on the best bowlers in the opposition lineup in the form of Anrich Nortje, Kagiso Rabada and Ravichandran Ashwin in the first three overs of the game. By the end of the third over, Saha had reached 21 off 9 balls with the help of five boundaries that was evident of the changes he had brought into the SRH’s top order and at that point, he was outsourcing David Warner which is a feat in itself. Saha showed immense game awareness and decided to hold back when Warner started teeing off against the Delhi bowlers and took the mettle once again in the 10th over following Warner's dismissal in the 9th and carried on in the same dominating fashion in which he started his innings till the 15th over when he was rushed in by a short ball from Nortje after a 45-ball-87 that literally batted the Delhi Capitals out of the game. David Warner David Warner was under pressure from problems that seemed to be insurmountable so far in the season. He has not had the worst IPL season as a batsman but the team had struggled to win games from situations that looked seemingly easy. Having the clarity of the objectives of winning all three matches in order to be in the race for one spot among the top four teams of the IPL 2020, David Warner looked focussed with clarity in stroke playing and footwork, which are signs of his good form. The third over of the game when Shreyas Iyer introduced Ravichandran Ashwin to check Wridhiman Saha who was going all guns blazing at that stage, Warner pounced on Ashwin and made his intentions clear on the Delhi’s bowling. A six off bowler who has always given him trouble got Warner going as Australian never looked back and kept on coming at the bowlers. An onslaught followed in the next over of Nortje and when Kagiso Rbaa returned with his second over of the night in the sixth over, Warner announced his arrival on the stage and alerted Iyer and the Delhi team that he had a well-planned strategy to take on the best of Delhi’s firepower in the bowling department. Rashid Khan Bowlers of Rashid Khan’s stature barely have an off day with the ball and with the mountain of runs behind him while defending, it was always an uphill task for the Delhi batting side to tackle Rashid Khan. However, teams in the past have decided to let their guards down against Rashid to preserve wickets in order to attack other bowlers in the team. Hence, the spell of Rashid Khan was critical for the Sunrisers in the game as Warner could not have asked for a situation of a close game after posting such a huge total on the board. The Delhi Capitals never got going and by the time Rashid was introduced they were made claustrophobic and had to go against Rashid as well in order to make a game out of a long chase. Rashid left his mark immediately beating Shimron Hetmyer on the backfoot on his very first delivery and followed it with a superb wrong’un to outsmart Ajinkya Rahane in the same over. He ended the night with a surreal figure of 7/3 which is the best figure for any bowler in the current season of the IPL from his four overs with 15 dot balls and the restrictions he put on the Delhi’s batting lineup killed the already failing chasing efforts of Delhi Capitals. Flops Kagiso Rabada When Shreyas Iyer had won the toss and elected to bowl first, he would have hoped the duo of Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje would turn up with the best against the Sunrisers. But, it wasn’t to be as Kagsio Rbada had his worst night on the field with the ball and the team could never recover from the jolt he received from the opening pair of the Sunrisers Hyderabad. Rabada came into the game with an outstanding record of taking at least one wicket in his last 19 appearances in the IPL but he could not find his lengths as he was finding in the games preceding the tonight’s game. He started poorly and leaked 15 runs in his first over, giving two boundaries to Wriddhiman Saha and the night went from good to worse for him as David Warner made his night bad to worse sending him all parts of the ground in his second over of the game. He salvaged some pride in the last over by limiting the damage to only seven runs but the damage to the team was already incurred and the Delhi Capitals could never match up the level of batting that the Sunrisers put on. Shimron Hetmyer The Delhi Capitals’ top order has been in good form and it meant that players such as Shimron Hetmyer who was assigned the task of finishing games were not getting enough time in the middle to change the course of the game. However, with steeping required run rate and early loss of wickets, the Delhi management decided to try Hetmyer’s match-winning abilities. Hetmyer never got going and was stuck in the middle in search of desperate boundaries which he scored here and there and one ball of Rashid Khan was enough for the Sunrisers to see his back. Hetmyer had faced only 85 balls in the 11 matches he had played before this match and he could not make the most of the opportunity he was given in the chase against the Sunrisers. After showing belligerence in the early part of the tournament when the side could pose headaches for any team and showed exemplary balance in the playing XI, the Delhi Capitals have gone off the boil in the last three games and have faced defeats. These defeats do not change their fortunes and standings on the points table but both Shreyas Iyer and Ricky Ponting would do well to remind the side that IPL is a very tough tournament to stop a slide and they need to come back stronger than ever against tougher opponents in the remaining two matches. Powered by Froala Editor Powered by Froala Editor

IPL 2020: 'Don't retire', KXIP youngsters tell 41-year-old Chris Gayle

41-year-old Chris Gayle is going great guns in the ongoing IPL 2020. Known as the ‘Universe Boss’, Gayle hit a 25-ball fifty against Kolkata Knight Riders to guide Kings XI Punjab to their fifth win on a trot. Ever Since Gayle made his appearance in the 13th edition of the cash-rich tournament, Punjab haven’t lost a single contest. The KL Rahul-led side struggled to win games in the first half of the tournament. With the Jamaican batsman in the bench, KXIP could manage to win mere one game out of seven outings. The inclusion of the flamboyant cricketer has given a fresh lease of life to the Punjab unit as they moved to the fourth spot in the points table, all thanks to the 8-wicket win over Kolkata. He was adjudged the man of the match for his stellar show. At the post-match presentation ceremony, the veteran batsman revealed that the youngsters in the team are asking him not to retire. “Today the coach asked the senior players, we need to step up in crucial games, I am glad we were able to put my hand up. And the youngsters in the team are telling me, ‘Don’t retire,’” Gayle said. The batter said it was important to capitalize on a track that didn't offer much to the bowlers. Gayle stated that Punjab has a long way to go and he looks forward to the upcoming games. KXIP will take on Rajasthan Royals on Friday.