IPL 2024: Delhi Capitals to Face Kolkata Knight Riders in Visakhapatnam: KKR opt to bat
In IPL Cricket, Delhi Capitals will face Kolkata Knight Riders today at Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam. The match will start at 7.30 PM, IST. Kolkata Knight Riders have won the toss and have opted to bat.
A bit of Vizag is exactly what Mitchell Starc might need at the moment.
His long-distance relationship with IPL has wound up in a difficult reunion, with the left-arm pacer returning combined figures of 0 for 100 in his first two games. He neither has been able to strike with the new ball nor been economical at the death, the two aspects of the game where Kolkata Knight Riders have lagged behind in this cycle and primarily the reason they broke the bank for his services.
On the eve of KKR’s match against Delhi Capitals, bowling coach Bharat Arun was asked about his conversations with Starc. “Nothing about the price!” came the light-hearted reply. “Yes we have been talking about his strengths. I am sure he knows and understands what it is and what it takes to succeed. And the kind of experience he brings in, having played in all the conditions, it’s just a matter of time before you see Starc in his elements.”
Fortunately for Starc, it’s still very early in the season and he now returns to a venue where he racked up a five-wicket haul the last time he was here. Such was thewreckage from that spell that an ODI for which Vizag waited three years lasted only 37 overs in all.
Even a couple of nights ago, only seven overs of spin were bowled out of 40 overs during the DC-CSK match, so bowling here is a prospect Starc could definitely enjoy. But it could mean a fair bit of recalibration for a side that’s traditionally thrived on the back of its spinners.
For Delhi Capitals, it would be about continuing to pick the threads from their last game. Recoupling of Prithvi Shaw and David Warner at the top, which assistant coach Pravin Amre revealed was the opening pair they had in mind on the auction table, paid rich dividends and Rishabh Pant grooved to the Dhoni chants that go a long way back in his career. And once the runs were on the board, the likes of Khaleel Ahmed and Mukesh Kumar also responded to hoist their first points of the season.
DC would like to leave Vizag with two wins out of two and they would be high on confidence after getting the better of CSK, another team like KKR who came in with two wins out of two. But Shreyas Iyer’s team might not be the easiest of oppositions after their away-win in Bengaluru, so watch out for a close contest.
Squads:
Kolkata Knight Riders Squad: Philip Salt(w), Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer(c), Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Andre Russell, Mitchell Starc, Anukul Roy, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Suyash Sharma, Vaibhav Arora, Manish Pandey, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Chetan Sakariya, Sherfane Rutherford, Sakib Hussain, Srikar Bharat, Dushmantha Chameera, Allah Ghazanfar, Nitish Rana
Delhi Capitals Squad: Prithvi Shaw, David Warner, Rishabh Pant(w/c), Mitchell Marsh, Tristan Stubbs, Axar Patel, Abishek Porel, Anrich Nortje, Mukesh Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Khaleel Ahmed, Rasikh Dar Salam, Sumit Kumar, Kumar Kushagra, Praveen Dubey, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Ricky Bhui, Kuldeep Yadav, Jhye Richardson, Shai Hope, Lalit Yadav, Yash Dhull, Vicky Ostwal, Swastik Chikara
