Win Projections to be updated soon
The match between Delhi Capitals and Rajasthan Royals, the IPL 2021 will complete the first seven days. The fans have started to get some idea about these teams’ strength and weakness as quite a number of new heroes are emerging. Also, the contrast in the playing style between high scoring pitches in Wankhede Stadium and the slow turning tracks in the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
Both the Capitals and Royals impressed in their opening matches despite getting two different kind of results. Where the Capitals won in their chase thanks to couple of aggressive knocks from Prithvi Shaw and Shikhar Dhawan, Royals lost their match by just 4 runs despite a valiant effort by their captain Sanju Samson who scored a hundred. Delhi Capitals missed their two premier fast bowlers in Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje due to COVID related restriction and it showed in their performance. Chris Woakes started well but Tom Curran was expensive. Nortje will again miss the encounter against the Royals as he is currently COVID-19 positive. This may hamper their plans and it also means that Woakes will keep his spot. Strategically, the Capitals will primarily use Woakes in the Powerplay and Rabada in the death over to get the maximum effectiveness of their bowlers and control a host of aggressive batsmen of the Royals.
IPL 2021: The batting order conundrum of Sunrisers Hyderabad
Royals are also facing a huge blow as one of their most influential all-rounders Ben Stokes is out of IPL due to a broken hand which he sustained during the first match of the season. This is their second injury blow after a hand surgery has kept Jofra Archer out of the IPL for next few weeks. Archer is also one of the key players for the Royals and was the Most-valuable-Player in IPL 2020. Royals will hope for him to get fit as soon as possible and join their squad so that they can use his service in the second half of the series. In recent times, Stokes is not bowling regularly and only bowled one over in their opening match. With a host of all-rounders in the team, Royals will not miss his bowling but will terribly miss his aggressive batting at the top. Royals may use the young Englishman Liam Livingstone to fill Stokes’ spot in the eleven. Livingstone, an aggressive opening batsman and spinning all-rounder, had a great Big Bash League and will hope for a successful IPL.
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