The first game of the double-header on Saturday will see Delhi Capitals (DC) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) battle it out at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. Both the teams started their UAE leg of IPL 2021 with a win, however, Delhi had the more convincing result of the two.
Delhi Capitals made a solid turnaround in 2020 to make the finals and there has been no looking back ever since. They have emerged as one of the sides to beat and will look to continue their dominant run. The Capitals made light work of a struggling Sunrisers Hyderabad as they resumed their campaign. Hyderabad was restricted to 134/9, a total well under par, particularly for a batting line-up such as that of the Capitals.
The pace duo of Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje set the foundation for this win. While Nortje picked two wickets, Rabada scalped three. Both the pacers were lethal last time in the UAE and the story was no different this time as well.
Southpaw Shikhar Dhawan continued his fine form with the bat, scoring 42 runs at the top. Shreyas Iyer (47*) and Rishabh Pant (35*) ensured that they comfortably got past the line with eight wickets to spare. Iyer getting amongst the runs right away upon returning from injury is a good sign as Delhi suffered a massive blow with Marcus Stoinis likely to miss out.
Meanwhile, Rajasthan Royals played out a close victory against Punjab Kings in a thrilling tie. They set a total of 185, courtesy breezy knocks from Evin Lewis, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Mahipal Lomror.
KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal got Punjab off to a flying start putting up 120 runs for the first wicket. With Aiden Markram and Nicholas Pooran at the crease, the Kings were cruising comfortably towards a win.
However, Rajasthan made a strong comeback with some excellent bowling at the death, to steal victory from the jaws of defeat. The Royals are now at the fifth spot and will look to break into the top four with a win.
My Dream11 Team for DC vs RR Match:
Sanju Samson (vc), Rishabh Pant, Shikhar Dhawan (c), Evin Lewis, Shreyas Iyer, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Chris Morris, Axar Patel, Chetan Sakariya, Anrich Nortje, Kagiso Rabada
Probable Playing 11
Delhi Capitals
Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (c & wk), Marcus Stoinis / Steve Smith / Tom Curran, Shimron Hetmyer, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Avesh Khan.
Probable Playing 11
Rajasthan Royals
Evin Lewis, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson (c & wk), Liam Livingstone, Mahipal Lomror, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia, Chris Morris, Chethan Sakariya, Kartik Tyagi, Mustafizur Rahman.
Squad
Delhi Capitals
Shreyas lyer, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Tom Curran, Ajinkya Rahane, Amit Mishra, Avesh Khan, Axar Patel, Chris Woakes, Ishant Sharma, Lalith Yadav, Marcus Stoinis, Praveen Dubey, Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Ravichandran Ashwin, Rishabh Pant (C), Shimron Hetmyer, Steve Smith, Umesh Yadav, Ripal Patel, Vishnu Vinod, Lukman Meriwala, M Siddharth, Sam Billings.
Rajasthan Royals
Evin Lewis, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson(w/c), Riyan Parag, Shivam Dube, Rahul Tewatia, Chris Morris, Kartik Tyagi, Chetan Sakariya, Mustafizur Rahman, Tabraiz Shamsi, Shreyas Gopal, Liam Livingstone, Jaydev Unadkat, David Miller, Manan Vohra, KC Cariappa, Glenn Phillips, Mahipal Lomror, Oshane Thomas, Mayank Markande, Anuj Rawat, Gerald Coetzee, Kuldip Yadav, Akash Singh.
