Capitals pace to topple the Royals
The 30th match of this year’s Dream11 Indian Premier League sees the Delhi Capitals take on the Rajasthan Royals, who will be looking to build on the confidence they gained from their tight win over the Sunrisers Hyderabad on Sunday. For Delhi they gave reigning champions the Mumbai Indians a good game at the weekend, but were outclassed by a side that is oozing confidence.
The Stokes effect?
Having the dynamic Ben Stokes back in the ranks for the Rajasthan Royals would have been a huge boost for captain Steve Smith, but he hardly hit the ground running in his first game back. Ben opened the batting with his fellow England team mate Jos Buttler, but it was hardly the same fireworks between the pair that helped England win the World Cup Final in 2019. The Royals were reduced to 26-3 with both openers and the captain all back in the shed. But it wasn’t their star names at the top who would win the games for the Royals, Riyan Parag (42*) and Rahul Tewatia (45*) played a match winning knock to get Rajasthan home with just one ball to spare.
With the ball, the win was set up by great spells of bowling from the majority of the bowlers. On a slow pitch, Jofra Archer managed to get some pace out of the deck to keep the Sunrisers down in the powerplay, and later picked up the wicket of the man he has gotten out five times so far this year, David Warner.
Can they go back to the summit?
A showdown with the champions was a good litmus test for the Delhi Capitals who have had an excellent first half of their IPL campaign this year. Shikhar Dhawan played a mature knock of 69* to allow others to play more expansively around him. 163 was the target for the Mumbai Indians and it was the same South African pace duo who did the damage with Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje both going at only seven runs per over. Axar Patel got the key wicket of Rohit Sharma for just 5 from 12 balls but Mumbai managed to get over the line with two balls left.
The Capitals will be without wicket keeper Rishab Pant for at least a week through injury but Delhi are well stocked in the keeper department with Aussie Alex Carey coming in to take his place behind the stumps.
Match Tip
Despite the overseas firepower, the Delhi bowling attack is looking ferocious this year and should be enough to get the points on Wednesday. Kagiso Rabada has gone 21 consecutive T20 matches taking wickets and he doesn’t look like stopping anytime soon.
I am backing the Delhi Capitals to beat the Rajasthan Royals at 1.73 with bet365.
Post bet chat Jack's Tips:
Delhi shown their class in a tight battle with the Royals to win by 13 runs.