Bangalore and Delhi square off in the Monday encounter to fight for the top spot in Indian T20 League 2020.
Match Timings: Oct 05, 3:30 PM
Team Preview
After securing the third victory on their respective Saturday affairs in Indian T20 League, Bangalore and Delhi play each other to take the top spot. Bangalore edged past Rajasthan in the first game of the doubleheader. Chahal & Co. put an outstanding bowling effort to restrict Rajasthan on 154 and Kohli-Padikkal duo chased down the total in the final over last-over thriller. The skipper got his first half-century after a series of failure and Bangalore can relax as they are now a prominent T20 side. Morris’ availability is in doubt and management can try him in the next game to avoid any risk. For Monday’s game, they might go ahead with the similar XI in Dubai.
Meanwhile, Delhi has moved to the top spot after a thrilling win over Kolkata in a high-scoring thriller. Shreyas Iyer scored gorgeous 88 off 38 balls, following Shaw’s 2nd half-century to put 228. Kolkata almost pulled off the chase but Delhi hold the nerve in the end. In Dubai, you might see Rahane at the top replacing injured Shaw or Iyer can even try Sandeep Lamichhane to attack with full spin. Axar Patel will also be back in the squad replacing Amit Mishra. With the pure balanced combination, Delhi has a slight edge over Bangalore. How the spin play a role, will decide the outcome of this game.
Pitch Report
Dubai’s surface is a balanced T20 track. It provides a good amount of help to spinners and batting in the 2nd innings might be a tough task against the spin. The surface gets slow later the match progresses and the hard-hitting will not work here. Any score above 160-170 would be a challenging total on this track.
Possible XI
Bangalore
Devdutt Padikkal, Aaron Finch, Virat Kohli (c), AB de Villiers (wk), Shivam Dube, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Washington Sundar, Isuru Udana, Navdeep Saini, Adam Zampa, Yuzvendra Chahal
Delhi
Prithvi Shaw/Ajinkya Rahane, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Shimron Hetmyer, Marcus Stoinis, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Harshal Patel, Axar Patel
Key Players
Bangalore
Devdutt Padikkal
Season so far – M: 04, Runs: 174, Avg: 43.50, SR: 134.88
Yuzvendra Chahal
Season so far – M: 4, Wickets: 8, Avg: 14.38
Delhi
Shreyas Iyer
Season so far – M: 04, Runs: 170, Avg: 56.67, SR: 150.44
Kagiso Rabada
Season so far – M: 4, Wickets: 8, Avg: 15.75
