Inconsistent Capitals and Kings clash under Covid-19 cloud

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The doughty virus has squeezed through the bio bubble, a player has been hospitalised as a precaution, and the match has been relocated across the expressway from Pune to Mumbai, but the good news is that the match will still be happening. Fingers crossed, for who can forget 2021?

Both Delhi Capitals and Punjab Kings have lost three and won two of their last five matches, and will want to weed out the inconsistency they've shown with the tournament nearing its halfway stage. Capitals are in further strife, and not just because their camp has been hit by Covid-19.

There are as many as 19 names above Prithvi Shaw, their highest run-getter of the tournament; Anrich Nortje, one of their retained picks, first sat out injured, then returned, and got taken off the attack for sending down a pair of high full-tosses. An early drop of Dinesh Karthik by Rishabh Pant then went a long way in deciding Capitals' fate against Royal Challengers Bangalore the last match.

If they can get their act together and manage two points against Kings, Capitals will climb two steps up to No. 6 on the points table. If not, they can only hope it is not too late.

Meanwhile, Kings have alternated between Ws and Ls over their six matches so far. They have lost the toss and batted first in the last five of them, but, thanks to their mantra of all-out-attack, have still posted totals of 198, 189 and 180. This, after they had hunted down 206 to start the season.

So the batting's okay. But the bowling, apart from Rahul Chahar and Kagiso Rabada, has lacked wicket-taking menace. Arshdeep Singh has been superb at keeping the runs down at the death, but he only has two wickets across phases from 21 overs in six matches. And Odean Smith, on top of not scoring enough runs, is leaking them at 11.86 an over.

Like Capitals, a win for Kings can help them up two places - and three if Royal Challengers lose big to Lucknow Super Giants - at just the right time.

With Mitchell Marsh out of action for at least a week after testing Covid-positive, he is certain to miss Capitals' fixture against Kings and also against Rajasthan Royals two days later. Meanwhile, Kings' regular captain Mayank Agarwal missed their previous match against Sunrisers Hyderabad due to an injured toe. At the end of that game, Shikhar Dhawan said he was "much better now", and hoped Agarwal would play "the next game", although there has been no further updates.

Delhi Capitals: 1 Prithvi Shaw, 2 David Warner, 3 Sarfaraz Khan/Yash Dhull/Tim Seifert, 4 Rishabh Pant (capt & wk), 5 Lalit Yadav, 6 Rovman Powell, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Shardul Thakur, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Mustafizur Rahman, 11 Khaleel Ahmed

Punjab Kings: 1 Prabhsimran Singh, 2 Shikhar Dhawan (capt), 3 Jonny Bairstow, 4 Liam Livingstone, 5 Jitesh Sharma (wk), 6 Shahrukh Khan, 7 Odean Smith/ Benny Howell/Rishi Dhawan/Raj Bawa, 8 Kagiso Rabada, 9 Rahul Chahar, 10 Vaibhav Arora, 11 Arshdeep Singh

Strategy punt

Rabada, who has seven wickets this tournament, will be getting a chance to add to that tally when he takes the new ball against David Warner, whom he has dismissed five times in 13 innings across all T20s. But if Warner can see Rabada off, he will enjoy facing Chahar and Arshdeep, against whom he strikes at 179 and 148 respectively.

While Kuldeep Yadav's resurgence has been encouraging for Capitals, his orthodox spin-bowling colleague Axar Patel has just one wicket to show from 17 overs this season. However, if Agarwal is fit and he opens the batting with Dhawan, then there is a case for Axar to bowl in the powerplay despite his having bowled only three overs in that phase in 2022. This is because he has restricted Agarwal to just 36 runs from 43 balls, does about the same to Dhawan as well (14 off 14).

Stats that matter

Capitals have beaten Kings in four of their last five meetings. The only time Kings won was in Dubai in 2020, where Dhawan happened to be the Player of the Match for Capitals despite being on the losing side.

There have been 103 sixes hit in just six matches in Pune so far, with 129 maximums in eight games at Brabourne. This means the Wednesday's clash moves from the venue with the highest sixes-per-match ratio to the next one on the list.

Three batters that feature in the four best opening partnerships in IPL history will be part of this match. That's Dhawan and Warner, who have previously combined for a record 2220 runs, and also Warner and Jonny Bairstow, who have put on 1401.