Rajasthan faces high-flying Delhi in the Friday encounter of the Indian T20 League 2020.
Match Timings: Oct 09, 7:30 PM
Team Preview
The Sharjah glory fades away from Rajasthan as the pink-outfit lost 3 consecutive games in Abu Dhabi and Dubai and they are back in Sharjah to take that glory to add much-needed win on Friday. The hero of first two wins, Sanju Samson produced a series of failures but Jos Buttler got 70 off 44 in the previous game to give team management a slight taste of positivity. The captain introduced Kartik Tyagi and he impressed with his bowling. It would be the final game for Rajasthan without Ben Stokes as the English all-rounder will join the side on Sunday after completing the quarantine. The defeats are not the issue for Steve Smith, the issues are revolving around the margin of errors. In all three defeats, they have been dominated by the opponents. In the last game, bowlers tried to execute their plans very well but they let the team down in flag-overs. Batting is completely out of the zone. Rajasthan needs to show some extra-ordinary game to stop Delhi on Friday night.
Meanwhile, Delhi is having their best season in the tournament history and the compact unit of Shreyas Iyer is now amongst the favourites who can lift this year’s title. In the previous encounter, they thrashed Bangalore with a dominating effort from batting and bowling both. With the bat, they have a strong unit and Hetmyer is the only batsman who hasn’t impressed much so far. With Rabada and Nortje, Delhi are ticking all the points in pace. In spin, they have Axar and Ashwin who pick breakthroughs in middle-overs. Iyer is even trying them in the powerplay to control the run-rate. On a batting paradise, Delhi might be surprised by Rajasthan as they have big-hitters and got success in their first two games here.
Pitch Report
Sharjah’s ground is pure batting surface and in all night matches, it produced 200 plus score in each innings. Bowling first is an ideal call but the chasing pressure could insist captain bat first and put a huge total on board.
Possible XI
Rajasthan
Jos Buttler (wk), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Steven Smith (c), Sanju Samson, Mahipal Lomror, Rahul Tewatia, Jofra Archer, Tom Curran, Shreyas Gopal, Ankit Rajpoot, Kartik Tyagi
Delhi
Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Shimron Hetmyer, Marcus Stoinis, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Harshal Patel, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje
Key Players
Rajasthan
Sanju Samson
In Sharjah – 74 (32), 85 (42)
Jos Buttler
Previous outings – 22 (12), 70 (44)
Delhi
Prithvi Shaw
Season so far – M: 5, Runs: 179, Avg: 35.80
Shreyas Iyer
Season so far – M: 5, Runs: 181, Avg: 45.25
