IPL 2021 | DC vs RR: Royals run into indomitable Capitals after spirit-lifting win over Kings

Not often result of one game depicts the true picture of the state a team is in but the last games of the Delhi Capitals and the Rajasthan Royals drew a perfect image of where these two sides stand in the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League.

As they have been on the points table, in the race to the final four, the Royals were living on the edge till the last ball of the game and won by a slim margin has been on the brink on the most part of the second innings. 

On the other hand, the Delhi Capitals were bullish and dominated against a feeble opponent in the form of the Sunrisers Hyderabad in their last game.

No wonder, the Rishabh Pant’s Capitals are ruling while the Sanju Samson’s men in pink are gazing at the middle of the points table of the ongoing edition of the IPL.

For the Capitals, it was a normal day in the office against the Sunrisers as their two most potent weapons with the ball in Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje ripped the heart of the Sunriers’ batting in the open. The balling examination was followed by a usual batting juggernaut led by the openers in Prithvi Shaw and Shikhar Dhawan.

However, it will be the Royals who will be more ecstatic going into the next game albeit the intensity of the challenges the Capitals will throw at them will be monumental. They will be delighted to see the young guns in Yashasvi Jaiswal, Mahipal Lomror and Karthik Tyagi standing up to be counted in the absence of international stars.

No stars? No problem says Indian talents

After the withdrawal of Jos Buttler, the last cog of the vital English wheels came off for the Royals and they had no established international stars to boost the aggressive quotient for them, especially at the top of the order with the bat.

They signed up Evin Lewis as Buttler’s replacement but the move was a tactical one keeping in mind his form in the recently-concluded CPL instead of a larger strategic one to have a stable top order.

However, what they badly needed was an impetus from their Indian players and all those wishes were fulfilled in the first game of the second phase.

Yashasvi Jaiswal has been touted as one for the future but the Royals needed him to show belongs to the present as well as they are in a precarious situation in the race for playoffs. He opened the batting with Lewis and showed his full range of shots to establish his belongings at the top of the order.

His onslaught was followed by another young batsman’s colossus innings. Mahipal Lomror put waters on all the plans of the Punjab Kings to choke in the middle overs by the experienced leg spinner Adil Rashid. 

The duo contributed big time in allowing the Royals to set up a big enough total on the board to allow the Kings to mess up a chase in the last over bowled by another young Indian in Karthik Tyagi. 

Yes, the Royals have not unearthed a young trio of Jaiswal, Lomror and Tyagi to replace the trio of Buttler, Stokes and Archer but the job was well done by the Indian trio and the Royals are alive and kicking in the IPL 2021.

However, one of their biggest test will come against the Capitals as the duo of Rabada and Nortje will come steaming in to test their throat and toes while the likes of Pant and Hetmyer will test Karthik’s execution under pressure in the eyes of attack in the last overs.

Delhi Capitals vs Rajasthan Royals: Match Details

Match number: 36

Date and Time: 15:30 IST (10:00 IST), 14:00 LOCAL

Venue: Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi

Pitch and Weather

The pitches at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium have been a little two-paced in the past and both the pacers and the spinners have enjoyed relatively equal success at this venue in the shortest format.

There have been two games this season at this venue and teams have struggled to mount severe damages on the bowling sides in both games. In the first game, the Royal Challengers Bangalore were plummeted to 92 all out while the Mumbai Indians were denied to 155 in the second game against the Kolkata Knight Riders.

The game between the Capitals and the Royals will be a day affair and hence high humidity can also help the pacers to swing the ball. 

Team News

Delhi Capitals

The Capitals suffered an injury setback in the last game as Marcus Stoinis pulled up while bowling in the last game against the Sunriers and it’s highly likely that the all-rounder will miss the game against the Royals. 

However, Nortje has said that Stoinis appears to be “good” and “fine” but the management is waiting for the results of the scan.

 “We are just waiting on some results. He looks good, he is fine. I spoke to him this morning, but we are just waiting for some results. He had gone for a scan,” Nortje said in a virtual press conference.

They are already without Chris Woakes who could have been a like for like replacement but the Capitals will now fret over replacing Stoinis without compromising their balance. Stoinis was their sixth bowler who was offering flamboyance to the batting order and the Capitals will struggle to find a replacement of his pedigree in such a short while.

They can bring Sam Billings to replace Stoinis, the batsman and bank on an experienced set of five bowlers to deliver four overs each.

The combination of Rabada and Nortje is all but likely to continue after they were paired once again after coming to the UAE while the pair of Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel will form the slow-bowling conundrum for the Royals batting lineup.

Probable XI

Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (C &WK), Sam Billings, Shimron Hetmyer, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Avesh Khan

Rajasthan Royals

Although the Royals have not cracked the perfect playing XI combination yet they are all set to field an unchanged XI more due to lack of options.

Their most expensive player Chris Morris had an unforgettable game against the Kings but the team management led by Sanju Samson and Kumar Sangakkara would not be willing to take such a big call of overlooking him that too in the absence of Archer, Stokes and Buttler.

The opening pair of Jaiswal and Lewis will continue followed by Samson at number three, Liam Livingstone and Lomror at four and five respectively.

The bowling attack will remain to rely on Morris and Tyagi for express pace while the likes of Chetan Sakariya and Mustafizur Rahman will add the variation quotient to the pace department. Rahul Tewatia along with Lomror and Riyan Parag will fill in as bowlers to give Samson more manoeuvrability with the bowling attack.

However, one of their biggest test will come against the Capitals as the duo of Rabada and Nortje will come steaming in to test their throat and toes while the likes of Pant and Hetmyer will test Karthik’s execution under pressure in the eyes of attack in the last overs. 

Probable XI

Yashasvi Jaiswal, Evin Lewis, Sanju Samson (C&WK), Liam Livingstone, Mahipal Lomror, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia, Chris Morris, Mustafizur Rahman, Chetan Sakariya, Kartik Tyagi

Delhi Capitals vs Rajasthan Royals: Fantasy XI

Sanju Samson, Rishabh Pant(WK), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Prithvi Shaw, Chris Morris, Axar Patel, Kartik Tyagi, Mustafizur Rahman, Kagiso Rabada

Captain: Shikhar Dhawan

Vice-captain: Evin Lewis