Delhi and Punjab will face each other in Sunday’s night encounter in Indian T20 League. Both sides suffered defeats in their previous encounters.
Match Timings: April 18, 7:30 PM IST
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Delhi and Punjab will lock horns in Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium for the second Indian T20 League clash on Sunday. Things were not okay for both sides in their previous encounters and one more defeat will hurt their campaign.
Delhi almost clinched the game against Rajasthan but Chris Morris came out of the syllabus. Ponting can be proud of his bowlers who stood tall to defend 147 in Mumbai but he has to fix the error of his batting unit. Pant scored a fine half-century but the batting line-up failed to deliver. Top-order couldn’t survive against the new ball. They took chances against spin but it was a delayed effort. Rababa looked good in the first spell but Delhi would expect to see his best in death-over. Ashwin conceded just 13 in 3 overs but Pant didn’t try him in the crucial phase. Delhi went with three overseas pacers and dropped Hetmyer in the last game. Ponting can finally add Steve Smith in eleven to boost the middle-order. Delhi cannot depend on its top-order.
Meanwhile, Punjab had a similar story and they delivered a big failure with the bat on a batting track. Punjab scored only 106 in 20-overs and Chennai chased down with losing four wickets. Punjab bowled very well which is a good sign. Shah Rukh Khan is other positive point from the last game who scored 47 in the last game under pressure. Top-order failed to survive against the new-ball swing of Deepak Chahar. Punjab has to fix its issues and consistency is required. Change is unlikely to happen in this game. Arshdeep and Shami are doing well and the last match was good for the Australian duo Meredith and Richardson. It should be a cracking high-scoring affair.
Pitch Report
Wankhede’s track is good for batting and it will offer lot of runs to batsmen. Pacers can take extra advantage as we saw in the last two games. Chasing is still an ideal call after winning the toss. We may expect a good score of 180-190 in the first innings.
Possible XI
Punjab
KL Rahul (c & wk), Mayank Agarwal, Chris Gayle, Nicholas Pooran, Deepak Hooda, Shahrukh Khan, Jhye Richardson, Murugan Ashwin, Riley Meredith, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh
Delhi
Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant (c & wk), Marcus Stoinis, Steve Smith, Chris Woakes, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kagiso Rabada, Umesh Yadav, Avesh Khan
Key Players
Punjab
KL Rahul
Best average at Wankhede in last three years
Arshdeep Singh
Variation in pace and will be handy in seaming conditions
Delhi
Shikhar Dhawan
Top-scorer for Delhi last season, having top-form in last one year in T20s
Kagiso Rabada
Effective in powerplay and death considering the seaming condition in Mumbai
