Follow UsRoyal Challengers Bengaluru and Delhi Capitals are clashing in the national capital in a fascinating contest that can be decisive in the playoffs race. Both teams have made changes before the crucial game.
While RCB have replaced Phil Salt with Jacob Bethell because the former was down with fever, DC have brought in Faf du Plessis who missed the last few games for the Capitals. Bethell is slotted to open with Virat Kohli.
Meanwhile, RCB skipper Rajat Patidar won the toss and elected to bowl first. Both teams are at 12 points, but DC has played a game less than RCB and are at second position on the points table. A win here for RCB can help them fight for a top-two place by the end of the league stages.
Here’s what both the skippers had to say at the toss:
Rajat Patidar: We will bowl first. The wicket is quite good to bat on, and I don't think it will change too much, and we like to chase. It's our first win at our home and we will try to continue playing good cricket. We are trying to improve in every match, so we want to keep learning. Bethell has come in place of Salt.
Axar Patel: That is an advantage too but if we had won the toss, I think we would have batted only and use the wicket in the second innings. In the last game, there was no dew but in the game against Mumbai, there was some dew. They (LSG) had two foreign batters at the top so I wanted to bowl against them. I was bowling with a good rhythm, the plan wasn't to bowl four overs in a row but I kept bowling well so I continued with it. Faf is back and the Impact player we will decide according to the situation.
Here are the playing XIs as well.
RCB: Virat Kohli, Jacob Bethell (In for Phil Salt), Rajat Patidar (C), Romario Shepherd, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Tim David, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Suyash Sharma (In for Devdutt Padikkal), Josh Hazlewood, Yash Dayal.
Impact players nominated by Royal Challengers Bengaluru - Devdutt Padikkal, Rasikh Salam, Manoj Bhandage, Liam Livingstone, and Swapnil Singh.
DC: Faf du Plessis (In for Ashutosh Sharma), Abishek Porel, Karun Nair, KL Rahul (WK), Axar Patel (C), Tristan Stubbs, Vipraj Nigam, Mitchell Starc, Dushmantha Chameera, Kuldeep Yadav, Mukesh Kumar.
Impact players nominated by Delhi Capitals - Ashutosh Sharma, Mohit Sharma, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Madhav Tiwari, and Tripurana Vijay.