In the 28th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023, Delhi Capitals (DC) will host Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) tonight i.e. Thursday, April 20 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi at 7:30 PM IST.
The Capitals’ season has gotten off to the worst possible start as they have lost all five of their games. At the top of the order, David Warner has been excellent with the bat, but the other batters haven’t offered him much assistance. In terms of batting, the Capitals appear to be very strong on paper courtesy of players like Prithvi Shaw, Mitchell Marsh, Manish Pandey, and Yash Dhull. However, they haven’t been able to use their potential to play well on the pitch. A welcome surprise came from Axar Patel‘s bat, as he has played a few solid innings.
Speaking about bowling, the situation is similar as DC have struggled to control opponents despite having several great bowlers on their team, like Mustafizur Rahman, Kuldeep Yadav, and Anrich Nortje.
On the other side, the two-time IPL winners have stumbled a bit in the past week after a strong start to the league, losing back-to-back games. However, given that they are up against a demoralised Delhi team, they stand a decent chance of rallying. Rahmanullah Gurbaz and N Jagadeesan would be expected to get the squad off to a strong start in this scenario. While Gurbaz has occasionally displayed strong performance, Jagadeesan has struggled to keep up his form from the local circuit. The majority of the run-scoring responsibilities will be handled by KKR’s middle order, which is in fantastic form. In the last match, Venkatesh Iyer got a brilliant century, while Nitesh Rana and Rinku Singh are also playing well. Andre Russell and Sunil Narine, the team’s two finishers, are yet to show off their skills.
The spin bowling trio consisting of Varun Chakaravarthy, Suyash Sharma, and Narine has performed admirably thus far, taking 19 wickets collectively. The seamers, however, have found it difficult to have an impact.
Head-to-Head:
In the head-to-head competition between the two teams, KKR have the upper hand. The two sides played 31 matches against each other; 16 of those matches were won by Kolkata and 14 by DC. One match ended with no result.
In the last match between the two sides in the previous edition, DC beat KKR by four wickets.
Where-to-Watch:
TV: Star Sports Network
OTT: JioCinema