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As the Indian Premier League (IPL) caravan returns to the picturesque Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium after a 10-year hiatus, Punjab Kings (PBKS) will make a final push for a Playoffs spot when it hosts bottom-placed Delhi Capitals (DC) in a must-win game on Wednesday.
With its campaign coming to a grinding halt following a 31-run defeat to the same opposition four nights ago, DC will hope to play party-spoiler and make amends. Chasing a middling 168, David Warner started off like the clappers in the PowerPlay before DC’s middle-order was swept away by the spin duo of Harpreet Brar and Rahul Chahar.
DC’s woeful season with the bat has reduced the ‘bowlers win you tournaments’ adage to an anodyne refrain. While DC is the only team to not have conceded 200 or more in a match this season, the batters have failed to even breach the 190-run mark.
The harrowing form of its Indian batters has forced DC to rely on all-rounder Axar Patel as an anchor and finisher and pack its top four with overseas players, who have been out of their depth on slow pitches in the last couple of games. DC lost its four overseas players in the space of 16 balls against PBKS.
A general view of the HPCA stadium.
| Photo Credit: Dhruva Prasad
“We just lost six wickets in four [sic] overs. We are pretty disappointed. It was a game that was there to be won. The conditions got a little bit tough in the second innings, but we were so far ahead of the game that we just needed two batters to stay out there… We are still trying to find the best combination. When you are not winning, it’s never easy. For any franchise, when Indian players don’t have a good season, it’s always tough, no matter how good your overseas players are,” DC’s assistant coach Ajit Agarkar said on the eve of the match.
On the flipside, PBKS registered four consecutive totals in excess of 200 but its bowlers let it down in two of those games. Profligacy at the death and the lack of wickets in the PowerPlay have highlighted the travails of Arshdeep Singh, Sam Curran and Kagiso Rabada.
Meanwhile, Punjab’s batters have adapted to the exigencies of the modern game. Barring skipper Shikhar Dhawan, no PBKS batter averages even 30 but five of them boast a strike rate of 150 (minimum 100 runs).
With the fourth spot in the standings at stake, it will be interesting to see if Punjab persists with its thrill-a-minute approach against DC’s disciplined bowling as Prabhsimran Singh’s coming-of-age hundred spared it the blushes last time.
With nothing to lose and plenty to learn, Delhi could look to promote Axar Patel up the order to counter the spin threat. However, after seeing the generous smattering of grass on the wicket and the lush green outfield at the venue on Tuesday, the trio of Phil Salt, Mitchell Marsh and Rilee Rossouw would breathe a little easy while the out-of-favour Rabada, from the opposition camp, would be smacking his lips.
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