Delhi and Lucknow lock horns in the first encounter of a thrilling Sunday

In a tale of two contrasting sides, a soaring Delhi Capitals will be stepping into the battlefield against the Lucknow Super Giants who have so far savoured a phenomenal start to their IPL campaign apart from a few minor blemishes. The Super Giants started their journey on a slow note but was quick to get on the bandwagon of dominion, following in the footsteps of another debutant Gujarat Titans.

The Delhi Capitals, on the contrary, kicked off their season on a high with Kuldeep Yadav breaking record grounds and tossing the opposition into some menacing trouble before the franchise losing steam midway. However, their batters have done a phenomenal job in their last outing to put the campaign back on rails.

Given the marathon league that IPL already was, the addition of the two new teams has now thrown open the gateway of an even more exciting and bloated denouement with the sides in the top half of the points table very closely matched.

Delhi dominated Kolkata thoroughly in their last game as ex-KKR spinner, Kuldeep Yadav bagged four crucial scalps to derail their innings. He was perfectly complemented by a marauding Mustafizur Rahman who would pick three wickets, to leave the Knights stuttering. Their batters had an early scare and somehow was heading into dark end until the Caribbean muscleman, Rovman Powell took over the reins and unleashed the rampage that he is usually known for in the T20 cicruit.

Post a narrow loss at the hands of the Royal Challengers Bangalore, the Super Giants have once again managed to regain their momentum as they beat Mumbai and Punjab on the trot. Against Mumbai, it was the bowlers who did the trick for Lucknow while the contest against Punjab saw them establish themselves in an even more intimidating avatar.

This will be a fine contest of two sides who have wind in their sails and are stationed at a juncture where the final result can go miles in defining the fate of their campaign, especially as we are headed towards a blockbuster business end of the IPL.

Venue Watch:

Wankhede has always been a batter’s paradise and given the fact that this will be a day game, whatever advantage the bowlers would have got early in the innings won’t count. Even though there will be some sharp swing in the first two to three overs of the opening innings, however, the remainder of the game will allow the batters to make their way comfortably to Promised Land with the perks compounded by shorter boundaries. Surprisingly, the last game between the Knights and the Capitals played here saw the bowlers calling the shots with KKR piling up 149 and Delhi barely scraping through with a win.

Squads:

Delhi Capitals:

Rishabh Pant, Axar Patel, Prithvi Shaw, Anrich Nortje, David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Shardul Thakur, Mustafizur Rahman, Kuldeep Yadav, Ashwin Hebbar, Abhishek Sharma, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, KS Bharat, Mandeep Singh, Khaleel Ahmed, Chetan Sakariya, Lalit Yadav, Ripal Patel, Yash Dhull, Rovman Powell, Pravin Dubey, Lungi Ngidi, Vicky Ostwal, Sarfaraz Khan.

Lucknow Super Giants:

KL Rahul (c & wk), Quinton de Kock (wk), Manish Pandey, Deepak Hooda, Krunal Pandya, Evin Lewis, Marcus Stoinis, Jason Holder, Andrew Tye, Kyle Mayers, Avesh Khan, Dushmantha Chameera, Ravi Bishnoi, Ayush Badoni, Manan Vohra, Krishnappa Gowtham, Shahbaz Nadeem, Ankit Rajpoot, Mayank Yadav, Mohsin Khan, Karan Sharma.

Match Details:

Delhi Capitals vs Lucknow Super Giants

Venue: Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai

Date: 1st May 2022

Time: 3:30 PM IST