IPL 2021: Delhi Capitals v Royal Challengers Bangalore – Preview, Prediction, Probable Playing XIs and Value Bets.
Match Details
Delhi Capitals v Royal Challengers Bangalore
Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad
Tuesday, April 27th, 2021
16:00 SA Time
Betting Preview
The 22nd match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) sees Delhi Capitals (DC) going head to head against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The two teams have faced each other on 25 occasions with RCB leading the battle 14-10. However, DC are coming into the match with the momentum on their side while RCB are coming off an embarrassing loss. DC will be the slight favourites for this game.
Delhi Capitals are fresh off a thrilling super over victory against Sunrisers Hyderabad and are currently sitting on 2nd position in the table with 8 points in 5 matches. A third win on the bounce for Rishabh Pant’s men has given them a lot of momentum as they move on to the next phase of the tournament. Despite Shikhar Dhawan’s rare no-show against SRH, DC will take a lot of heart from Prithvi Shaw’s return to form, who was adjudged the Man of the Match for his 53 off 39 balls. The return of Axar Patel in their bowling attack has also strengthened Delhi’s cause. It will be interesting to see if they will bring Anrich Nortje in at the Ahmedabad venue.
On the other hand, the winning train of Royal Challengers Bangalore finally got halted by a ruthless Chennai Super Kings as RCB moved down to the 3rd position with 8 points with an inferior net run-rate. The Virat Kohli’s men took a hard reality check on a day when their batting talismans failed to deliver and their leading wicket taker Harshal Patel was detrimentally taken apart. However, the dream form of Devdutt Padikkal is a big plus for RCB and they will continue to seek big performances from the youngster which will give more solidity to what is already a heavyweight batting line-up. The main concern for RCB before their next round of fixtures will be to get their bowling combinations right.
Injury and Availability News
Delhi Capitals’ Ravichandran Ashwin has taken a break from IPL and Royal Challengers Bangalore’s Adam Zampa and Kane Richardson have departed the IPL due to the Covid-19 situation.
Probable Playing XI
Delhi Capitals
Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Steve Smith, Rishabh Pant (c/wk), Marcus Stoinis, Lalit Yadav, Axar Patel, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Avesh Khan, Amit Mishra.
Royal Challengers Bangalore:
Virat Kohli (c), Devdutt Padikkal, Shahbaz Ahmed, Glenn Maxwell, AB de Villiers (wk), Dan Christian, Washington Sundar, Kyle Jamieson, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal.
Pitch and Conditions
Narendra Modi Stadium, also known as The Motera stadium is a tricky business. The tracks have offered significant assistance for pace bowlers under the lights this year. The average first innings score at Motera in T20s in 2021 is 138 while it sees a spike in T20Is to 171.
Key Players to Watch Out For
Prithvi Shaw: Despite a couple of hiccups, Prithvi Shaw has made a great start to his IPL 2021 campaign. He started the season with a brilliant 72 off 38 balls that helped Delhi Capitals to comfortably chase down CSK’s 188. Apart from that, a quickfire 32 off 17 against PBKS and a solid 53 off 39 in the latest game against SRH have been his highlights of the season so far. With 166 runs so far in 5 matches with a strike-rate of 159.6, Prithvi Shaw can prove to be fatal for any opposition, if he can find a little more consistency.
Axar Patel: After spending four matches on the sideline with COVID-19, Axar Patel made a brilliant comeback with the ball for Delhi Capitals against Sunrisers Hyderabad. After ending his spell with a figure of 4-0-26-2, Axar went on to bowl a brilliant super over, giving away just 7 runs to the batting duo of Warner and Williamson. Axar Patel’s return to the DC side has given their bowling department a huge boost, and it will be pivotal in the coming days with the absence of Ravichandran Ashwin. Apart from that, the team will also look forward to benefiting from Axar’s batting abilities in the coming matches as well.
Devdutt Padikkal: In a batting lineup full of world class players such as Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell and AB de Villiers, it takes a lot of courage to stand out. Devdutt Padikkal has done exactly that with 171 runs so far in 4 innings with a strike-rate of 158.33. After starting the season slowly, Padikkal has switched his gears drastically to score a brilliant unbeaten 101 off 52 balls against Rajasthan Royals and a brisk 34 off 15 against CSK. The RCB opener looks in a dream run of form at the moment and should continue to dominate the bowling attacks in his free flowing role at the top.
Glenn Maxwell: The Australian power hitter, Glenn Maxwell has reinvented himself in the IPL this year for Royal Challengers Bangalore. With 198 runs in 4 innings and a strike-rate of 148.87, Maxwell is RCB’s leading run getter of the season so far. With a strong supporting cast around him, Maxwell has had the freedom to play his natural game without any pressure. It’s expected that the ‘Big Show’ will continue his good run of form and keep entertaining the fans as their run of fixtures move onto its next phase in Ahmedabad.
What Bets To Take
Delhi Capitals
Shikhar Dhawan to be DC’s top batsman at 3.00.
Kagiso Rabada to be DC’s top bowler at 3.00.
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Virat Kohli to be RCB’s top batsman at 3.25.
Yuzvendra Chahal to be RCB’s top bowler at 3.75.
Prediction: Delhi Capitals to win at 1.83.