Cricket Indian Premier League Prediction

Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Delhi Capitals - Match Preview

🏏 24 April 2023 - 18:00 GMT +0

With only six league points earned from the combined 12 matches between them, it’s easy to see why Sunrisers Hyderabad (W2, L4) and Delhi Capitals (W1, L5) are hogging the space at the wrong end of the points table in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 edition. Their face-off at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad can be a clutch encounter as the Capitals can replace their hosts with a win, while the home side can put their hat in the ring of top-half contenders if they avoid that. Most importantly, it will give the winner the edge ahead of the reverse encounter in Delhi just five days later!

Two points won’t be easy for the Sunrisers, who have been performing in patches. After starting with twin losses, they picked up momentum with back-to-back wins but lost the sting with another set of twin losses. The culprits have been the batters, with their batting average (156.17) and run rate (8.01) worse than all sides bar – ironically – their visitors Delhi Capitals. That is no guarantee of success though, as the Sunrisers’ teams of the past have lost six of their last eight H2Hs including four in a row.

The lone beacon in their hour of darkness has been the bowling performances of Mayank Markande (eight wickets, ER 6.25rpo) who has returned the best bowling figures for SRH in three of their last four matches. The complete absence of Washington Sundar’s usual efficiency (zero wickets, ER 8.63rpo) has nullified that effect though, with the Sunrisers struggling to balance their team composition.

Sunrisers’ struggles are nothing compared to Delhi’s who are coming off their first win of the season, but not before taking 19.2 overs and losing six wickets in a 128-run chase. That performance has crushed any thoughts of immediate resurgence, although the return of veteran pacer Ishant Sharma (4-0-19-2) in a ‘Player of the Match performance, plus captain David Warner finding his faster scoring shoes (57 runs off 41 balls), have been heart-warming events for the Capitals’ fans.

It is tough to search for positives in the midst of such results, but their powerplay bowling, where they have conceded just 1.17 sixes per innings, is a shining knight in the armour for them. They would like to complement that in the batting powerplays, where they are the only team yet to hit a six in the first six overs this season.

⚡ Key battle: The seasoned IPL traveller Manish Pandey can count the Sunrisers as one of his former teams. The current Capitals’ batter hasn’t had an impact yet this season (97 runs) but may get a boost playing Hyderabad, against whom he notched seven 30+ scores across 12 innings. While Axar Patel’s batting (148 runs, SR 8.88rpo) has been the talking point of the Capitals’ season so far with talks of elevation up the order for his calm authority, his bowling could make the difference here having taken five wickets in his last three H2Hs. If he comes up against Manish, Axar may fancy his chances of tying things up – if not dismissing him – as the H2H record in the IPL suggests: 43/2 off 67 balls at an SR of 3.85rpo in 12 innings.

📋 Stat attack: The average first-innings score across three IPL 2023 matches at this venue is 179, while the all-time average is 160.

• Seven of the Sunrisers’ 11 H2H wins have come while chasing.
• An opener top-scored for the Sunrisers in their last three matches.
• David Warner has been dismissed in the powerplays only once in this season.
• In five of the Capitals’ six matches this season, an Indian bowler ended up taking the highest wickets for them.
• Washington Sundar against Manish Pandey in IPL: 33/1 in seven innings @ 5.65rpo.
• Axar Patel bowled five dots in 11 balls against Rahul Tripathi in all T20s.