IPL 2021, RR vs SRH, PBKS vs DC Playing 11: Delhi Capitals (DC) skipper Rishabh Pant won the toss and elected to bowl first against Punjab Kings (PBKS) in the ongoing IPL 2021 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday.
DC opted to go with the same playing XI. For PBKS, Mayank Agarwal will be captaining the side in place of regular skipper KL Rahul, who has been diagnosed with acute appendicitis. Punjab also decided to hand David Malan his IPL debut.
Delhi Capitals (Playing XI):Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Steven Smith, Rishabh Pant (captain), Marcus Stoinis, Shimron Hetmyer, Lalit Yadav, Axar Patel, Kagiso Rabada, Avesh Khan, Ishant Sharma.
Punjab Kings (Playing XI): Mayank Agarwal (captain), Prabhsimran Singh, Chris Gayle, Dawid Malan, Deepak Hooda, Shahrukh Khan, Harpreet Brar, Chris Jordan, Riley Meredith, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohammed Shami.
Earlier, Rajasthan Royals (RR) emerged victorious by 55 runs against a struggling Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi. Chasing a target of 221, the Kane Williamson-led side were restricted to 165/8 at the end of 20 overs.
Punjab Kings will soon start the proceedings with the bat… without KL Rahul. Follow the live commentary of the contest here.
Rishabh Pant wins the toss and opts to field first. Mayank Agarwal captains Punjab Kings and will open the innings. Dawid Malan replaces an out-of-form Nicholas Pooran. This is Malan’s IPL debut.
In KL Rahul’s absence, Punjab Kings have two options. Prabhsimran Singh can keep the stumps like he did in the previous match. Also, Nicholas Pooran is an option as well for the role of wicketkeeper. However, Pooran may get replaced by Dawid Malan after a poor run with the bat in the tournament so far.
KL Rahul is likely to be unavailable for the remainder of the series.
Praying for KL Rahul’s health and speedy recovery 🙏❤️#SaddaPunjab#PunjabKings#IPL2021pic.twitter.com/q81OtUz297
— Punjab Kings (@PunjabKingsIPL) May 2, 2021
Nicholas Pooran has had a string of poor scores in this season. In the previous game, Prabhsimran Singh opened the innings but got out after scoring just 7 runs. Maybe Punjab Kings include Dawid Malan in the side replacing Pooran. The No.1 T20I batsman can bat at No.3 or open the innings depending on where Chris Gayle bats.
Punjab Kings skipper KL Rahul currently has the orange cap with 331 runs from seven games at an average of 66.20 including four half-centuries. Delhi Capitals’ opener Shikhar Dhawan is not far behind with 311 runs from seven games at an average of 44.22 including two half-centuries. Dhawan has a chance to reach the top, if Rahul fails to score big. On the other hand, Prithvi Shaw is fourth on the list with 269 runs from same number of games and three half-centuries.
Sunrisers Hyderabad’s new skipper Kane Williamson won the toss and elected to bat first.
SRH XI: Jonny Bairstow(w), Kane Williamson(c), Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Vijay Shankar, Abdul Samad, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sandeep Sharma, Khaleel Ahmed
RR XI: Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson(w/c), Anuj Rawat, David Miller, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia, Chris Morris, Kartik Tyagi, Chetan Sakariya, Mustafizur Rahman
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) announced that they have named Kane Williamson as their captain for the remainder of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 replacing David Warner. The franchise also announced that in their next game against Rajasthan Royals to be played on May 2, there will be a change in the overseas combination of players. “The team management has also made the decision that they will be changing their overseas combination for tomorrow’s match against Rajasthan Royals,” SRH said in a statement. (Read)
The poor quality of Indian talent has also been SunRisers’ bane. In the bowling department, a lot depends of Afghan spinner Rashid Khan and he has been doing a decent job if not excellent, with nine wickets from six matches. But the problem is he is not getting enough support from his bowling colleagues.
What made @sandeep25a, @BhuviOfficial and @Suchithj27 take up bowling?#OrangeOrNothing#OrangeArmy#IPL2021pic.twitter.com/Ad4ixpARfa
— SunRisers Hyderabad (@SunRisers) April 30, 2021
SRH are coming into Sunday’s match after losing their last two matches, though they were unlucky to suffer defeat in the Super Over against Delhi Capitals. With captaincy of the team goes back to Kane Williamson, they rely heavily on the top-four of David Warner, Jonny Bairstow, Manish Pandey and Williamson but rarely they fired together and that is the concern as they do not have a much batting in the middle order.
The Sanju Samson-led RR lacked consistency. They notched up their first win in their second game and lost their next two matches before winning again — against a struggling Kolkata Knight Riders. In their last match against Mumbai Indians, the top-order did a decent job to put up 171 for 4 but their bowling let them down with all of them leaking runs and allowing MI batsmen score freely to lose by seven wickets with nine balls to spare.
What time is it? It’s Yashasvi time. 🔥#HallaBol | #RoyalsFamily | #RRvSRH | @yashasvi_jpic.twitter.com/N6HZNeT9OR
— Rajasthan Royals (@rajasthanroyals) May 2, 2021
The Royals have won two out of their six matches so far while the Sunrisers have one victory from six games. No wonder, RR is placed seventh while SRH occupied the bottom slot in the IPL table.
IPL 2021, RR vs SRH, PBKS vs DC Playing 11 (File)
