Coming off a heart-breaking loss and hit by star all-rounder Ben Stokes' injury-forced ouster, a beleaguered Rajasthan Royals would hope for another inspirational knock from new skipper Sanju Samson when they face a confident Delhi Capitals in the 7th match of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 in Chennai on Wednesday.
While DC made a superb start under new captain Rishabh Pant, clinching a seven-wicket win over Chennai Super Kings in their opening contest, RR suffered a four-run defeat against Punjab Kings in a high-scoring match. Chasing a mammoth 222 for win, Samson (119 off 63 balls) played a blinder of an innings in his debut as captain but couldn't get his side over the line as he was dismissed in the final ball of the innings while going for a maximum with RR needing five runs off the last delivery.
Advertisement
Last edition's runner-up side DC, on the other hand, had a perfect start to their campaign as they defeated three-time champions CSK with consummate ease. Opting to field, DC had allowed CSK to pile up a competitive 188 for 7 but Shikhar Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw made a short walk of the target with a 138-run opening partnership, that laid the foundation for the win.
The contest will also witness test of wits of two new captains in Pant and Samson.
Head-to-head: This will be their 23rd meeting. The head-to-head record is 11-11, Delhi Capitals have dominated the fixture in recent editions, completing league doubles in the last two seasons. Yes, the Royals had their share of joy too, completing doubles in 2013, 2014 and 2015.
Advertisement
Match and telecast details:
Match: 7th match of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 between Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Capitals
Date: April 15 (Thursday)
Time: 7:30 PM IST
Venue: Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, India
TV Channels: Star Sports Network
Live Streaming: Disney+ Hotstar (Subscription required)
Likely XIs:
Rajasthan Royals: Jos Buttler, Manan Vohra, Sanju Samson (c & wk), David Miller, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia, Shivam Dube, Shreyas Gopal, Chris Morris, Mustafizur Rahman, Chetan Sakariya.
Delhi Capitals: Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant (c & wk), Marcus Stoinis, Shimron Hetmyer, Chris Woakes, Ravichandran Ashwin, Tom Curran, Amit Mishra, Avesh Khan.
Squads:
Rajasthan Royals: Sanju Samson (c & wk), Jos Buttler (wk), Ben Stokes, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Manan Vohra, Anuj Rawat, Riyan Parag, David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, Mahipal Lomror, Shreyas Gopal, Mayank Markande, Andrew Tye, Jaydev Unadkat, Kartik Tyagi, Shivam Dube, Chris Morris, Mustafizur Rahman, Chetan Sakariya, KC Cariappa, Liam Livingstone, Kuldip Yadav, Akash Singh.
Delhi Capitals: Rishabh Pant (c & wk), Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Ajinkya Rahane, Shimron Hetmyer, Marcus Stoinis, Chris Woakes, R Ashwin, Amit Mishra, Lalit Yadav, Pravin Dubey, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Ishant Sharma, Avesh Khan, Steve Smith, Umesh Yadav, Ripal Patel, Vishnu Vinod, Lukman Meriwala, M Siddarth, Tom Curran, Sam Billings.
(With PTI inputs)
