Delhi and Bangalore will start their Ahmedabad leg after an impressive start to the season. Both sides are in the top four and will look to take the top spot with this game.
Match Timings: April 27, 7:30 PM IST
Team Preview
Ahmedabad leg has been started and we will witness a cracking contest between Delhi and Bangalore on Tuesday night. Both sides are in top-class form and lost just one game out of five. Delhi recently beat Hyderabad in a super-over game to clinch the second spot in the table. Delhi struggled a bit while batting and posted 159 despite getting a fiery start from the openers. Shaw scored a fine half-century and Avesh Khan bagged three wickets in 2nd innings. Pant and Dhawan survived the scar in super over against Rashid Khan.
Delhi is going through a good phase and they would look to extend this winning run. With four wins out of five, they are the top contender to crack one more playoff this season. Smith’s batting was good but he could have finished better. Delhi has to fix it soon. Axar’s inclusion worked for Delhi and he picked two for 24. Ashwin has taken a break from Indian T20 League and he will miss out remaining fixtures. It means, Lalit Yadav will be back in the side and Delhi will go ahead with two spinners. Nortje’s first match in Indian T20 League is still in doubt and Ponting will make the call after reading the pitch. If he is back, Rahane will replace Smith.
Meanwhile, Bangalore are coming off a 69-run loss against Chennai but they won four out of the first five matches which is a great sign. Some drop catches and some blunders in batting cost Bangalore a match and they also hurt their NRR. Harshal Patel’s 37 runs off the final over changed the game for Bangalore and this pressure haunted them till the end. Bangalore will look to move on from this defeat and will try to get back to the winning track. They have a compact side and one bad game cannot put them down. Harshal conceded just 14 in his first three before conceding 37 in the last over. He is an impactful death-bowler and the same job is done by Siraj so far who picks wickets with the new ball. Daniel Christian’s inclusion is out of mind after back-to-back failure and Kohli can again go with Richardson. Any major change in the squad is unlikely to happen for this game.
Pitch Report
Motera’s track is ideally a fine T20 track and it offers a good balance between bat and ball. We may expect a score of 160-170 which is an imposing total. Spinners can take advantage of the pitch.
Possible XI
Delhi
Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant (c & wk), Marcus Stoinis, Shimron Hetmyer, Lalit Yadav, Axar Patel, Kagiso Rabada, Amit Mishra, Avesh Khan, Anrich Nortje
Bangalore
Virat Kohli (c), Devdutt Padikkal, Washington Sundar, Glenn Maxwell, AB de Villiers (wk), Kyle Jamieson, Daniel Christian, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal
Key Players
Delhi
Shikhar Dhawan
Orange cap holder, 259 runs so far at an avg of 51.80
Avesh Khan
Impactful with the variation in pace, 11 wickets at an avg of 12.45
Bangalore
Harshal Patel
Effective death-bowler & purple cap holder, 15 wickets so far
Devdutt Padikkal
Looked in great touch from last two games, 171 runs in 4 games
