Two teams with two totally different mindsets and different sets of results in their last games would be up against each other on 14 October in Dubai in what could turn out to be a moving game in the Indian Premier League, especially for the Rajasthan Royals. For Delhi Capitals too, it would be a game of proving that their depth in batting, even without Rishabh Pant and that in bowling, even without Ishant Sharma and Amit Mishra.
Rajasthan will be looking to cash in on the experience of their Most Valuable Player (MVP) Ben Stokes, who has just joined the bandwagon and the team won the first game after a long time just as he joined. The Shreyas Iyer led the young side capable of turning any match on its head must and will be trying to concentrate on building long partnerships, which give quick runs to the team.
The two teams met each other in Sharjah earlier and Delhi humbled Rajasthan in that game. In this game, a re-energized Royals would for sure be looking to square the ties and exact revenge in the capital city of the Emirates.
Delhi Capitals in most of the matches haven’t got the platform ready from where the likes of Marcus Stoinis, Shimron Hetmyer, and Axar Patel could launch the attack in the death overs. It is one of the most important aspects of the game where coach Ponting and his team of support staff need to pay attention to.
Along with that, somebody in the camp also needs to tell Shikhar Dhawan that he needs to play fast at the opening position. His not being able to time the ball and hit hard according to the situation, is bringing the run rate down in the death overs, if he remains on the crease till them and even otherwise.
In the seven games that the Royals have played so far, the team combination has always looked unstable and the last game where a purely middle-order batsman Ben Stokes was asked to open the innings was just an example of that instability and lack of confidence of the management in the players.
Between Robin Uthappa and Yashasvi Jaiswal, the Steve Smith-led side has done a lot of experiment, they need to get a clarity of who their playing XI is and need to persist with them continuously for at least three games to get the desired results.
Match Number- 30
Date: 14th October 2020, at 7:30 PM IST
Venue: Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai
With the weather getting colder and the same wickets getting used more and more, the pitches in UAE are now starting to show their true nature of being low and slow, a perfect blend for low scoring thrillers. The wicket for this match would be the same used for the clash between Hyderabad and Chennai and hence would be slow for sure.
In that regard, the team winning the toss would like to bat first to make sure that the spinners make the best use of the pitch.
With winters approaching in the desert, the temperatures at the night are falling, humidity is decreasing and thus the ‘due’ is slowly becoming inconsequential to the game. The pitches are getting dryer and are helping spinners getting a grip from it, making the ball slower and helping it turn as well.
The team would look to bring back Hetmyer as, without him, it became very difficult for them to get to good score in the death, especially after Stoinis fell down as well. The services of Ishant Sharma and Amit Mishra will not be available to the team and hence replacements must be sought. Rishabh Pant’s absence is putting an extra burden of compulsively playing Alex Carey.
If the team wishes to play Hetmyer, then they would have to do away with any of the fast bowlers as there is no other player apart from Carey who could keep. And if they wouldn’t like to change the combination of the South African duo of Anrich Nortje and Kagiso Rabada, then most likely the same XI which played against Mumbai Indians would play this game as well.
Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer (c), Alex Carey (wk), Marcus Stoinis, Axar Patel, Harshal Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje
The Rajasthan team wouldn’t want to tinker with the winning combination that they have found after quite a lot of failures. If any, then Yashasvi Jaiswal might be back in place of Robin Uthappa.
Jos Buttler (wk), Steven Smith (c), Robin Uthappa, Sanju Samson, Ben Stokes, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia, Jofra Archer, Shreyas Gopal, Jaydev Unadkat, Kartik Tyagi
Jos Buttler (wk), Sanju Samson, Steve Smith, Shreyas Iyer(c), Ben Stokes, Marcus Stoinis, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia (vc), Harshal Patel, Jofra Archer, Kagiso Rabada,
Captain: Shreyas Iyer
Vice-captain: Rahul Tewatia
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