Delhi Capitals (DC) skipper David Warner will hope to make a ceremonious return to the city with whom he won the Indian Premier League (IPL) trophy in 2016 when the bottom-placed side face off against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the Uppal Stadium in Hyderabad on Monday, April 24.
Both teams have been at the lower end of the points table since the season kicked off but SRH have been slightly better than their counterparts. This will be the perfect chance for both teams to get themselves back into contention for an unlikely playoff spot after their respective poor starts to the season.
Speaking after winning the toss and choosing to bat first, Warner said that returning to Hyderabad was a special feeling, “My mindset is to thank the crowd, they've been a great support. For me, it's about entertaining them. Absolutely love this venue, I owe it to the fans.”
Meanwhile, Markram was looking forward to the challenge that DC will set for the team. “The surface shouldn't get worse. It's an important game for us, we need to start getting points on the board. We are looking forward to the challenge. Should be a good game of cricket… In terms of our batting, it has been up and down but we've made a conscious decision to pick a top six/seven that we are going to hopefully back for the remaining games. Looks good, pretty similar to the Mumbai game. Plenty of runs there, hopefully, we can deliver a good performance.”
Head to head:
DC and SRH have faced off against each other 21 times in the IPL. Out of these 21 games, Delhi have secured victory in 10 matches, while Hyderabad have emerged victorious on 11 occasions.
Pitch Report
According to legendary cricketers Pommie Mbangwa and Kevin Pietersen, “Square boundaries - 69 metres and 61 metres. Straight hit - 76 metres. I don't think there'll be that much sideways movement. The ball doesn't swing for a long time. It's not grassy enough for it not to spin. We think it's dry enough for it to grip a little bit. If you are batting first, this is a 180+ wicket.”
Previous Playing XIs:
Delhi Capitals
David Warner(c), Philip Salt(w), Mitchell Marsh, Manish Pandey, Sarfaraz Khan, Axar Patel, Aman Hakim Khan, Ripal Patel, Anrich Nortje, Kuldeep Yadav, Ishant Sharma
Sunrisers Hyderabad
Abhishek Sharma, Harry Brook, Aiden Markram(c), Mayank Agarwal, Heinrich Klaasen(w), Marco Jansen, Washington Sundar, Mayank Markande, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Umran Malik
