Match: Delhi Capitals Vs Kolkata Knight Riders
Date: 24th October 2020
Place (venue): Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi
Tournament: Indian Premier League 2020
Format: Twenty20
Captions
Can the Knight Riders pay off their old scores against Delhi Capitals?
Key Stats
Out of 5 head-to-head matches, DC have dominated KKR with 4 wins.
DC have defeated KKR by 18 runs in their previous encounter in this IPL.
Kagiso Rabada is the leading wicket-taker with 17 wickets for DC in this IPL so far.
Contents
Match Preview
Kolkata Knight Riders will be taking on the Delhi Capitals in the first match of the double-header on Saturday at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. Both teams are to play 3 more matches before taking on each other and will try to put on their best show.
Delhi Capitals have won 5 out of 7 matches and slipped to the second position after a loss against MI in Abu Dhabi. They posted a par total of 162 and did well to take the game to the last over. Shikhar Dhawan scored his first fifty and stayed not out on 69 runs off 52 balls.
After pulling out the last-ball victory against Punjab, the men in purple faced a humiliating loss at the hands of RCB. KKR lost the match by a big margin of 82 runs which has damaged their net run rate. KKR are placed fourth with 4 wins in 7 matches.
<Delhi Capitals Preview
Delhi Capitals have lost only 2 matches and both the losses took place in Abu Dhabi. They will be taking on KKR at the same venue. In the match against MI, they failed to score big and couldn’t defend a total of 162 runs.
Young Prithvi Shaw departed early on 4 runs off 3 balls but the veteran Shikhar Dhawan took charge and scored his first half-century in this IPL. He anchored the innings and scored 69 runs not out. Dhawan has scored 201 runs in 7 innings at an average of 33.50. Shreyas Iyer and Dhawan had formed a partnership of 85 runs before Iyer got out for 42 runs off 33 balls. Marcus Stoinis was set but got run out on 13 runs. Rishabh Pant couldn’t take part in the match as a result of an injury and Rahane got a chance to play, scoring a run-a-ball 15 runs.
Delhi bowlers have done phenomenally well in this season. The pace duo of Nortje and Rabada has taken most of the wickets for DC. Rabada once again scalped 2 wickets for 28 against MI. Nortje was wicketless against MI but he has taken 3 wickets for 33 against KKR. Axar Patel and Ashwin took one wicket each against MI.
Shreyas Iyer is the leading run-scorer with 245 runs in 7 matches and Kagiso Rabada is the leading wicket-taker with 17 wickets in 7 matches at an economy of 7.69
Key players: Marcus Stoinis, Kagiso Rabada, and Shreyash Iyer.
Delhi Capitals Probable Playing XI:
Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Marcus Stoinis, Shimron Hetmyer, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Harshal Patel, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje.
<Kolkata Knight Riders Preview
KKR have won all of their 4 matches on the back of their bowlers. The bowlers have done outstandingly well to restrict the teams to decent chasable scores and have also defended par scores. It is their batting which is quite out of place with batters desperately needing to find their bearings.
England batting prodigy Tom Banton got a chance to open but failed to make an impact on his first IPL game against RCB. Opener Shubham Gill batted well for his 34 runs off 25 balls but that wasn’t enough. Nitish Rana’s only fifty came against DC and since then he hasn’t scored anything big. Eoin Morgan has scored 175 runs in 7 matches and is the second-highest scorer for KKR this season. Dinesh Karthik is back in form after a match-winning knock of 58 runs off 29 balls against KXIP.
The bowling attack hasn’t picked many wickets but has restricted the totals quite successfully. Pat Cummins has picked only 2 wickets in 7 matches played so far and was wicketless against RCB. Varun Chakravarty didn’t get any wickets but was economical. Russell and Prasidh Krishna picked a wicket each. Prasidh Krishna took 4 wickets in the last 2 matches. No KKR bowler is included in the top 20 wicket-takers list in this IPL.
Shubhman Gill is the leading run-scorer with 254 runs in 7 matches at an average of 42.30. Andre Russell is the leading wicket-taker with 6 wickets in 7 matches.
Key players: Eoin Morgan, Andre Russell and Shubman Gill.
Kolkata Knight Riders Probable Starting XI :
Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Eoin Morgan, Dinesh Karthik (c & wk), Andre Russell, Rahul Tripathi, Pat Cummins, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine.
<Venue
DC have lost both of their matches in Abu Dhabi, whereas KKR have won 3 out of 4 matches at this venue. The ground is big and day games become tough due to soaring temperatures. The par total for day games at Abu Dhabi stadium is around 160.
<Toss Info
The pitch offers equal opportunities to bowlers and batsmen with spinners benefitting from the pitch too. Teams have defended well at this ground, especially KKR. In order to keep fielders agile, batting first seems to be the right option. So after winning the toss both teams would choose to bat first when playing at this ground.
Weather Reportp>The temperature will be around 35°C with hot and humid playing conditions. The humidity will be 50% which will make players sweat a lot. During the early part of the match, the wind speed will be around 15 kph.Our Prediction
>DC have played well so far against all teams but somehow couldn’t replicate those wins in Abu Dhabi, whereas KKR have defended small totals at this venue successfully. Both teams have few games to play and KKR will try to come hard at the opponents to finish in the top four. So, DC will be facing a fearless KKR.We predict KKR to register a win against DC.
Disclaimer: Our match previews are fully researched but as per the nature of the game, anything is possible on the match day. You are advised to decide for yourself when betting on a team. Thanks!