DC eye quick fixes against struggling RR

New Delhi: With their unbeaten streak over and the top ranking in the points table, not theirs anymore, Delhi Capitals (DC) will look to make quick fixes and strengthen their chances for an IPL 2025 playoffs spot when they face an inconsistent Rajasthan Royals (RR) at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Wednesday.

RR hold a slight edge against DC in the head-to-head record, with the inaugural IPL winners emerging victorious in 15 matches while losing 14 games. As far as RR’s record in New Delhi is concerned, they have won five times while losing on seven occasions.

Expectations were high from DC to keep their winning streak going as they returned to their original home ground on Sunday. But the Mumbai Indians had other ideas, cleverly using the ball change rule to cause a DC batting collapse after the halfway mark and consigning the hosts’ to a dramatic 12-run defeat.

Despite the loss, what would have gladdened the DC think-tank was impact player Karun Nair shining brightly with a breathtaking 40-ball 89 in his first game of the tournament. With proper execution of scintillating shots, especially against Jasprit Bumrah, Nair was clearly a man on the mission – to make DC win – till he was outclassed by a Mitchell Santner jaffa.

Meanwhile, RR are coming to New Delhi after getting a nine-wicket thrashing at the hands of Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in Jaipur. A major issue for RR has been their batting hasn’t clicked as a unit and the lack of batting depth in the side isn’t helping their cause either.

Squads:

Delhi Capitals: Axar Patel (captain), Faf du Plessis, KL Rahul, Kuldeep Yadav, Tristan Stubbs, Abishek Porel, Mitchell Starc, Vipraj Nigam, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Ashutosh Sharma, Mohit Sharma, Mukesh Kumar, Sameer Rizvi, Karun Nair, T. Natarajan, Darshan Nalkande, Dushmantha Chameera, Donovan Ferreira, Ajay Mandal, Manvanth Kumar, Tripurana Vijay, and Madhav Tiwari.

Rajasthan Royals: Sanju Samson (captain & wk), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Nitish Rana, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Jofra Archer, Maheesh Theekshana, Wanindu Hasaranga, Shubham Dubey, Tushar Deshpande, Sandeep Sharma, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Kunal Singh Rathore, Akash Madhwal, Kumar Kartikeya, Kwena Maphaka, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Ashok Sharma, and Vaibhav Suryavanshi.