IPL 2020, Delhi Capitals vs Sunrisers Hyderabad preview: Can Iyer’s team continue winning run?

Off to the best possible start with two wins on the trot, a confident Delhi Capitals will hope to keep the juggernaut rolling when they take on the winless Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League on Tuesday.

Both sides have endured contrasting campaigns so far.

Delhi head into the game after two morale-boosting victories. The Shreyas Iyer-led side edged past Kings XI Punjab in a thrilling Super Over before thrashing Chennai Super Kings comprehensively to jump to the top of the points table.

On the other hand, Sunrisers are the only side yet to register a win in the tournament, having lost both their games and David Warner and his men will be desperate to turn things around.

In their opening encounter, despite opener Jonny Bairstow (61) and Manish Pandey (34) putting Sunrisers in a winning position in a chase of 164, the team failed to cross the line.

Against Kolkata Knight Riders, the middle-order failed to fire and the team settled for a below-par total which the bowling unit couldn’t defend.

For Delhi, the South African pace duo of Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje has looked sharp with the new ball while spinners Axar Patel and Amit Mishra have performed splendidly in the absence of Ravichandran Ashwin.

Ashwin suffered an injury in the team’s first outing and is likely to miss the match against Sunrisers.

In the batting, the onus will be on seniors such as Shikhar Dhawan to lay the foundation, and he will have the talented Prithvi Shaw at the top of the order for company.

Rishabh Pant and Iyer have also looked in good nick, after rescuing the team from a spot of bother in the first game, the two pitched in with valuable runs against CSK.

For Sunrisers to do well, they would need to look beyond Warner and Bairstow. The top-heavy side must click as a batting unit to post its first win of the season on Tuesday.

The 2016 champions replaced the injured Mitchell Marsh with Afghanistan off-spinner Mohammad Nabi, who played a quick cameo with the bat and also bowled an economical spell later.

However, with the batting unit letting them down in both outings, Sunrisers might consider bringing in Kane Williamson, who has recovered from his injury, to provide stability to the line-up. He would be coming in place of Nabi.

Sunrisers spinners led by Rashid Khan continue to impress but the side is lacking a pace bowler who can hit the deck and push the batsman back off a good length.

Australian fast bowler Billy Stanlake is an option but with only four overseas slots available, his inclusion looks unlikely.

Milestones

— Rishabh Pant requires 3 dismissals and 6 sixes respectively to complete 50 IPL dismissals and 100 IPL sixes.

— Manish Pandey is 72 runs from completing 3000 IPL runs

— Shikhar Dhawan needs 3 sixes and 104 runs respectively to complete 100 IPL sixes and 1000 IPL runs for the Delhi franchise.

— Siddarth Kaul needs 1 wicket to complete 50 IPL wickets.

Match starts at 1930 IST and will be broadcast on the Star Sports network and Disney+Hotstar

(With PTI and iplt20.com inputs)