Indian T20 League 2023

DEL vs KOL, 28th Match

Preview

DEL will lock horns against KOL in the 28th match of the Indian T20 League 2023. The match is scheduled at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on Thursday, April 20.  

Delhi will still be looking forward to claiming their first win of the season by defeating Kolkata. Delhi has 5 loss from 5 matches and are sitting at the bottom of the points table. On the other side, Kolkata have won 2 out of 5 games played so far and are placed in 6th place in the points table. 

Both teams have lost their rhythm in the last couple of matches, so this match will be crucial for both sides to return to a winning position. Delhi will be keen on solving the batting issues that they are facing this season and Kolkata will be looking towards their bowlers to produce a better performance.

DC will not only be playing to win their first game of this season but will also fight for their pride. With a solid team led by David Warner, a head coach like the Aussie legend Ricky Ponting, and the  Indian great Sourav Ganguly as the Director of Cricket, they have a good blend of power and experience, and now they need to win back-to-back matches to get back into this tournament. Playing in front of the home crowd will surely help the side get back on the winning track. 

Delhi has a brilliant bowling side and has done great against the Bangalore side in the last game. The fault is in their batting side as they failed to chase the target of 175 runs. Mitchell Marsh and Kuldeep Yadav picked two wickets apiece to restrict the Red Devils’ batting unit, Axar and Lalit also took 1 wicket each with their spin attack.

Delhi lost four quick wickets in the powerplay while the team has just managed to score 30 runs in the first six overs. Manish Pandey scored a half-century off 38 balls, and no other batters managed to score more than 25 runs. At last, the team lost the game by just 23 runs. Prithvi Shaw and Mitchell Marsh’s form is still in big question ahead of this game against Kolkata on Thursday.

DEL skipper David Warner has been the lone warrior in the top spot so far in this edition of the Indian T20 League. The team’s middle order has not delivered good performance yet and the fire powers present in the team failed to capitalize on their strengths. Their prime motive would be to overcome all their weaknesses in the match against Kolkata who are also facing a bowling failure. 

The Kolkata side on the other hand lost two consecutive matches against the Hyderabad and Mumbai sides. Their two thumping wins against Gujarat and Bangalore came just before their upsetting losses. Although they are lacking of confidence but facing a team which hasn’t won a game would be their biggest advantage to make a comeback. 

Kolkata’s impact player Venkatesh Iyer has been one of the best choices made by any franchise this season. Iyer shined with the bat against Mumbai and scored a century after a long wait of 15 years before back then Brendon McCullum smashed a ton in 2008. Iyer’s 104 runs off 51 balls, helped Kolkata to achieve a total of 185 runs in spite of the other batters failing to put an impact into the game.

The problem arrived when their bowling side failed miserably from the beginning to the end. Barring youngster Suyash Sharma, all other bowlers failed to put on pressure on the opponent. Suyash picked two wickets giving away only 27 runs in 4 overs, unlike the other bowlers who were mercilessly hit outside the park till the match ended in favour of the Mumbai side. 

So far in this tournament, Kolkata hasn’t delivered an all-around performance to register a victory. Sometimes their batters failed to put an impact and where else the other time their bowlers lost track. They need to capitalise on their combined efforts to win this match against Delhi in the next game.

Match Details

Match: DEL vs KOL, 28th Match, IND T20 League 2023

Date: Thursday, April 20, 2023

Time: 07:30 PM

Venue: Arun Jaitley Stadium, New Delhi

Pitch and Weather Report

Delhi's Arun Jaitley Stadium is a superb place for the batting side to settle down and focus on the game. Shorter boundaries and a speedy outfield make it simple for the batters to score runs. Unfortunately, there is very little scope for the pace bowlers because of the sluggish surface. Yet, the wicket offers the spinners significant aid, and they have a successful track record on this ground.

The sky will be clear on the match day in Delhi. The maximum and minimum temperatures will be between 34°C - 27°C. The surface assists the batting department in the 2nd inning of the game.

DEL vs KOL Squads

DEL: David Warner (c), Mitchell Marsh, Yash Dhull, Manish Pandey, Axar Patel, Aman Hakim Khan, Lalit Yadav, Abishek Porel (wk), Kuldeep Yadav, Anrich Nortje, Mustafizur Rahman, Prithvi Shaw, Mukesh Kumar, Praveen Dubey, Sarfaraz Khan, Chetan Sakariya, Ishant Sharma, Rilee Rossouw, Khaleel Ahmed, Lungi Ngidi, Philip Salt, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Ripal Patel, Vicky Ostwal, Rovman Powell

KOL: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Venkatesh Iyer, N Jagadeesan, Nitish Rana (c), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Varun Chakaravarthy, Tim Southee, Mandeep Singh, Jason Roy, Litton Das, David Wiese, Anukul Roy, Kulwant Khejroliya, Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana, Aarya Desai, Suyash Sharma

DEL vs KOL Probable Playing XIs

DEL: David Warner (c), Prithvi Shaw, Mitchell Marsh, Yash Dhull, Manish Pandey, Axar Patel, Lalit Yadav, Abhishek Porel (wk), Anrich Nortje, Kuldeep Yadav, 

KOL: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Narayan Jagadeeshan, Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana (c), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Shardul Thakur, Sunil Narine, Lockie Ferguson, Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy

Match Prediction

When we compare both sides on pen and paper, Kolkata have an upper hand in this game against Delhi. The batting order of the home side is struggling at the moment and Kolkata have very few match-winners on their side. Although Delhi has a fiery pace lineup being a spin track, Kolkata’s spin trio of Chakravarthy, Suyash and Narine would be raging high on Delhi’s batting and thus we expect the away side to win this match. 

Top Fantasy Picks

David Warner - The Aussie opener has drafted three half-centuries in this edition of the Indian T20 League but hasn’t still yet hit a six. He is a steadfast source of runs at the top of the order and has been carrying his team on his back from the past matches

Anrich Nortje - The South African pacestar has gone wicketless in his previous three games but picted up 2-39 in his inaugural game of the tournament at this ground earlier this month.

Venkatesh Iyer - In spite of losing against Mumbai in the last fixture, Venkatesh Iyer was still awarded the Player of the Match Award with six fours and nine sixes while hitting 104 runs off just 51 balls. 

Nitish Rana - Kolkata’s recently made only five runs in the last game against Mumbai after posting 45 and 75 in the last two matches. He is a fine attacking batsman and is expected to continue his role in this game too. 

Risky Captaincy Choice

Andre Russell always fascinates fans with his all-round match-winning performances for the Kolkata side, He made 335 runs in 14 games at a strike rate of 174.47 and also picked 17 wickets at an average of 16.35 during the last season of the tournament. 

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