IPL 2021: DC vs KKR – Delhi Capitals and Kolkata Knight Riders will face off each other on the 29th of April, 2021. This will be the 25th match of the fourteenth edition of the Indian Premier League. The match is scheduled to be held in Motera Stadium of Ahmedabad and will start at 07:30 pm IST.
The Indian Premier League is being held in India this time after being held in Dubai for the thirteenth edition. This has generated a lot of excitement among the fans, who shall be looking forward to this match between two very powerful teams of the tournament. However, owing to the grim situation of the country due to the ongoing pandemic, there shall be no in-person attendance allowed in this match. Let us have a look at some of the unique features of this match.
DC vs KKR – Match Preview
The pitch in Ahmedabad is known for favouring batsmen. The batsmen were facing a bit of struggle in Chennai, but the pitch of the Motera stadium is known for favouring batting. T20 matches are anyway known for favouring hard hitting and this pitch definitely promises the same. Both the teams have good, hard-hitting batsmen and thus one can thus definitely expect the bowlers to go for a lot of runs.
The Delhi Capitals currently occupy the third spot in the rankings. It has moved down a spot after losing to the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the match that was held on the 27th of April 2021. They lost the match by a mere run and thus they shall be looking forward to proving themselves in this match. The Kolkata Knight Riders currently occupy the fifth rank in the Indian Premier League points table. Both the teams will be looking to boost their points and ranking by winning this match.
Kolkata Knight Riders:
The two teams have put up very different performances as of late. Delhi Capitals, which was on a winning streak from the beginning of the tournament, lost the last match to Royal Challengers by a run. The team now has 4 wins and 2 losses out of the 6 matches it has played, out of which it has won one match in a super over. This super over victory had boosted the team’s morale significantly.
The Kolkata Knight Riders, on the other hand have been able to win just two out of the six matches they have played in. They were on a losing streak of four matches and finally won against the Punjab Kings by five wickets. The match saw very good performances by the bowlers, who restricted Kings to 123 for 9 wickets following which the batsmen scored the requisite total with 3.2 overs left. The 66 run partnership between Rahul Tripathi and Eoin Morgan was crucial for the win. The Kolkata Knight Riders would thus definitely be looking forward to extending their winning streak to this match.
Kolkata Knight Riders (predicted XI): Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Rahul Tripathi, Sunil Narine (overseas), Eoin Morgan (overseas) (c), Andre Russell (overseas), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Pat Cummins (overseas), Shivam Mavi, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy.
Delhi Capitals
There have been no changes predicted for the squads of both teams. The openers of Delhi Capitals, Shikhar Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw, both are in good touch and will be raring to go in this match. Out of their bowlers, Avesh Khan seems to be in fine form and is the second-highest wicket-taker in this tournament. Players like Steven Smith and Marcus Stoinis should also be watched out for because of their excellent records in T20s. Rishabh Pant also is in good form. The team of Kolkata Knight Riders also boasts of multiple brilliant players. Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy form a very good spin duo. Narine is anyway famous for his mystery balls. They also have hard hitters like Russell and Morgan. Tripathi also seems to be a promising player, apart from the likes of Shubhman Gill and Nitish Rana.
Delhi Capitals (predicted XI): Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Steven Smith (overseas), Rishabh Pant (c and wk), Marcus Stoinis (overseas), Shimron Hetmyer (overseas), Axar Patel, Amit Mishra, Kagiso Rabada (overseas), Ishant Sharma, Avesh Khan.
DC vs KKR – Key Stats
The Delhi Capitals and the Kolkata Knight Riders have faced each other for a total of 26 times. In these 26 times, the Delhi Capitals have won a total of 11 times. The Kolkata Knight Riders, on the other hand, has won a total of 14 times. There has been one match that has yielded no results. Therefore, the Delhi Capitals shall definitely be looking forward to improving their record while the Kolkata Knight Riders will be looking to increase their margin of lead in the head-to-head records.
Conclusion
As the Indian Premier League reaches its midway, these two teams shall be looking to improve on their points and climb up the points table. Overall, the match will promise good cricket to the fans.
