As the race to the IPL play-offs heats up, the inconsistent Delhi Capitals are faced with a must-win situation when they take on a confident Rajasthan Royals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in the national capital on Tuesday.
The Capitals have endured yet another roller-coaster ride this season, winning five and losing six of their last 11 games. Hence, the Rishabh Pant-led outfit will need to win their remaining three games, which could take them to 16 points but might not be enough to qualify for the last four stages of the tournament.
Apart from KKR (16 from 11 games) and RR (16 from 10 games), there are at least three teams — Chennai Super Kings (12 from 11), Sunrisers Hyderabad (12 from 10 games) and Lucknow Super Giants (12 from 11 games), who can breach the 16-point mark. And in case, one of these teams finish on 16, along with DC, it will eventually come down to the net run-rate.
While those permutations and combinations are beyond their control, Pant and his side must focus on the controllables, and win the remaining three games for the side to at least stay in contention. Having said that, it definitely won’t be a walk in the park against a rampaging Royals.
On a flat Kotla track with barely 60-metre boundary on one side, Pant and the team management will be hoping that their bowling attack has enough sting to restrict a side that boasts of clean strikers like Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson, Riyan Parag, Rovman Powell and Shimron Hetmyer.
DC’s lead pacers Khaleel Ahmed (ER 9.47) and Mukesh Kumar (ER 11.05) will be expected to show more consistency with the South African pair of Lizaad Williams (ER 12 in 2 games) and Anrich Nortje (ER 13.36) simply not looking the part. The spin duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel will have to play their part to keep RR under a manageable total.
In the batting department, Pant, with 380 runs under his belt and three impactful half-centuries, would be expected to lead from the front, especially when his team has been pushed to the wall. He will have new Aussie sensation Fraser-McGurk, who has gone off the boil in the last couple of games to regain his mojo.
The rest of the batting order must step up and look to be more consistent if they are to keep their hopes alive. Against a bowling line-up comprising the likes of Trent Boult, Yuzvendra Chahal and Ravichandran Ashwin, and veteran Sandeep Sharma, the DC batters will face a stern test.
Winning is a habit, and the Royals, coming off a 1-run loss to Sunrisers Hyderabad, will keenly be hoping to get back the winning momentum, while DC will need to punch above their weight to stop the Pink outfit.