IPL-2024: Delhi Capitals will take on Gujarat Titans at Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi: GT opt to bowl
In IPL, Delhi Capitals will take on Gujarat Titans at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi. The match will start at 7.30 PM IST. Gujarat Titans have won the toss and have opted to field.
From bowling the opposition out for 89 to being torn apart for 266 runs, the Delhi Capitals have been at two extremes. Not just these two games, but the season itself has been a bumpy ride for the Capitals who’ll be seeking to put a stop to the inconsistency that has relegated them to the bottom half of the table. But despite the hammering they received at the hands of Sunrisers Hyderabad in their first game at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, they can seek solace from the fact that their opponents on Wednesday – Gujarat Titans – are the very team against whom DC came up with a commanding bowling display.
Among the positives for DC has been the arrival of Jake Fraser-McGurk who has struck two fifties in three games, including the fastest half-century for the Delhi team in the IPL and the joint third-fastest overall. They’d also like to reflect on their batting in the previous game, especially the way SRH’s managed to apply the brakes on DC despite their bright start in the chase.
“We’ve got to give credit to Sunrisers last game, they adjusted really well with their bowling. If you look back at the game, whenever they had the spinners on, we were right in the game, we were scoring really quickly. They changed it up, went back to their faster bowlers, they used the slower-ball bouncers really well. Natarajan was good with his bouncers and yorkers. They decided to try and close the game early rather than trying to stretch the game and have the better bowlers at the end,” said head coach Ricky Ponting.
That’s something the likes of Khaleel Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar and Anrich Nortje can use as a reference and come up with a renewed plan of attack. The spinners have been really good for DC with Kuldeep Yadav delivering the strikes and Axar Patel tying one end up. But they’ll want the pacemen to step up.
Meanwhile, the Titans’ hot and cold journey has culminated in four wins out of eight games so far and they find themselves just outside the top five. But looking at their recent matches, apart from the batting collapse against DC, they have done reasonably well. They are the only side to defeat Rajasthan Royals and they also overcame Punjab Kings. But apart from Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan in the top order and important contributions from Rahul Tewatia and Rashid Khan with the bat in the lower middle order, the Titans have struggled with their batting balance.
The middle order batters (Nos. 4, 5 and 6) have scored a combined 334 runs for the Titans, which is the least among all teams in this IPL. The Titans also have the lowest run-rate (8.03) among all sides, have hit the least sixes (29), have only two individual fifty-plus scores (the joint second least) and are one of two sides who are yet to cross the 200-run mark this season (LSG being the other team). On a positive note, GT have taken the most wickets in the powerplay this season (15 wickets) and their spinners have had the most success among all teams (19 wickets) – DC is second with 18 – and they’ll be eager to keep those positions intact while seeking a boost with their batting.
Squads:
Gujarat Titans Squad: Wriddhiman Saha(w), Shubman Gill(c), David Miller, Azmatullah Omarzai, Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Noor Ahmad, Sandeep Warrier, Mohit Sharma, Kane Williamson, Sai Sudharsan, Sharath BR, Manav Suthar, Vijay Shankar, Darshan Nalkande, Kartik Tyagi, Spencer Johnson, Sushant Mishra, Joshua Little, Abhinav Manohar, Jayant Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Matthew Wade
Delhi Capitals Squad: David Warner, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Abishek Porel, Rishabh Pant(w/c), Tristan Stubbs, Axar Patel, Lalit Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Anrich Nortje, Khaleel Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar, Prithvi Shaw, Shai Hope, Praveen Dubey, Rasikh Dar Salam, Sumit Kumar, Kumar Kushagra, Yash Dhull, Vicky Ostwal, Swastik Chikara, Jhye Richardson, Ricky Bhui, Lizaad Williams, Ishant Sharma.
