Having spent the longer part of the league in the cellar, Delhi Capitals is understandably desperate to move up the points table. Equally, Royal Challengers Bangalore is keen to break into the top-four bracket.
The two teams - yet to win the Indian Premier League - continue their pursuits at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground on Saturday following an identical sequence that includes three victories in the last four matches.
Fifth-ranked Bangalore eyes a sixth victory against a side that it beat by 23 runs last month. Much like Mumbai Indians, Bangalore, too, relies heavily on its frontline batters to offset a not-so-effective bowling attack.
In contrast, the 10th-placed Capitals is increasingly looking at the bowlers to come good since the batters continue to be a huge letdown. No wonder, all three victories for Capitals were results of some fine bowling.
Therefore, how the Bangalore batters deal with the Capitals’ bowlers could well decide the contest. Also, the Delhi batters will look to hit form against Bangalore’s’ struggling bowlers. In fact, since these teams met last, the Capitals’ self-belief is on the upswing.
No doubt, Bangalore’s batting holds the key. So far, skipper Faf du Plessis, Virat Kohli and Glenn Maxwell have done the bulk of the scoring. This factor serves as a huge source of comfort to the team’s dugout. However, the team’s bowlers have not enjoyed the same consistency.
Delhi’s woes in the batting Powerplay continued after it was reduced to five for 23 in five overs in the previous game against table-topper Gujarat Titans.
This fact should give some hope to the Bangalore bowlers. But how they execute the plans against the struggling Delhi’s top-order remains to be seen.
Though the visiting team holds a clear edge, the host hopes to raise the bar just that bit to pull off a surprise.
Squads:
Delhi Capitals Squad: David Warner(c), Philip Salt(w), Manish Pandey, Rilee Rossouw, Priyam Garg, Axar Patel, Ripal Patel, Aman Hakim Khan, Kuldeep Yadav, Anrich Nortje, Ishant Sharma, Khaleel Ahmed, Mitchell Marsh, Sarfaraz Khan, Lungi Ngidi, Praveen Dubey, Mukesh Kumar, Rovman Powell, Prithvi Shaw, Lalit Yadav, Chetan Sakariya, Yash Dhull, Vicky Ostwal, Abishek Porel
Royal Challengers Bangalore Squad: Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis(c), Anuj Rawat, Glenn Maxwell, Mahipal Lomror, Dinesh Karthik(w), Suyash Prabhudessai, Wanindu Hasaranga, Karn Sharma, Mohammed Siraj, Josh Hazlewood, Harshal Patel, Wayne Parnell, Siddarth Kaul, Kedar Jadhav, Michael Bracewell, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Finn Allen, Sonu Yadav, Manoj Bhandage, Shahbaz Ahmed, Akash Deep, Rajan Kumar, Avinash Singh, Himanshu Sharma
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