More than the match itself, this match is in limelight for another reason – COVID Outbreak. The DC Camp so far have 5 confirmed cases :-
Mitchell Marsh
Patrick Farhat (physiotherapist)
Chetan Kumar (massage therapist)
Abhijit Salvi (team doctor)
Akash Mane (social-media content team member)
There were chances of this match getting postponed which further could have created a doubt about tournament proceedings as it happened last year
But fortunately, the match has not been postponed, albeit with a changed venue - Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai (instead of MCA, Pune). But the match will only take place after DC Players clears the RT-PCR Test on the morning of the match.
1. Overview:
Head-to-Head Record: PBKS:15 | DC: 12
Delhi Capitals: With just 2 wins in their first 5 games, DC is just better than CSK and MI on the points Table. A loss in this match would make things difficult for them. But if we ignore the results, they have been competitive in all their matches and just failed to clinch the right moments. Shaw, Warner, Pant and Kuldeep have been their strength this season while Thakur, Powell and Axar are yet to fire.
Punjab Kings: Having played a match extra, PBKS has one more win than DC and so they sit in a bit comfortable situation. They have been known for their aggressive batting irrespective of wickets in hand and this approach has worked for them on most occasions. However, they suffered an ugly collapse from 131/4 to 151 All Out in the last match due to the same approach. Livingstone, has been their backbone in the batting but they will need big scores from their openers to provide a cushion for their middle order.
2. Probable XIs:
Delhi Capitals: With Mitchell Marsh tested positive, DC is expected to go back to Sarfaraz Khan.
Prithvi Shaw, David Warner, Rishabh Pant (C & WK), Rovman Powell, Sarfaraz Khan, Lalit Yadav, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Mustafizur Rahman, Khaleel Ahmed
Punjab Kings: Mayank Agarwal, who missed the last match due to injury, is expected to return this match.
Mayank Agarwal (C), Shikhar Dhawan , Jonny Bairstow, Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Shahrukh Khan, Nathan Ellis, Kagiso Rabada, Rahul Chahar, Vaibhav Arora, Arshdeep Singh
3. Pitch Report:
Expect yet another Batting Friendly surface with the scores in the vicinity of 180-200. Spinners are going to get help and dew will be a major factor. Toss will not be important as in the 8 matches played here, both chasing teams and defending teams has won 4 matches each.
4. Interesting Facts
1. If PBKS wins, they would have 16 wins each against RCB and DC; while DC will have exactly 16 losses each against 4 teams - KKR, MI, RCB and PBKS.
2. If David Warner scores a half-century(87 Half-Centuries), he would have joint-highest no. of half-centuries in T20s, along with Chris Gayle who has scored 88 half-centuries but in much lesser no. of innings as he will be playing his 316th innings while Gayle took 452 Innings to reach there.
3. Shikhar Dhawan (5989 Runs) needs 11 Runs to complete 6000 IPL Runs.
4. Shikhar Dhawan (8980 Runs) is 20 Runs away from completing 9000 T20 Runs
5. Prithvi Shaw (1962) needs 38 more runs to reach 2000 T20 Runs
6. Prithvi Shaw (1481) needs 19 more runs to complete 1500 IPL Runs
7. Jonny Bairstow (3936 Runs) needs 76 more Runs to complete 4000 T20 Runs
8. Axar Patel (147 Wickets) needs 3 more wickets to complete 150 T20 Wickets
9. Axar Patel (96 Wickets) needs 4 mores wickets to complete 100 IPL Wickets
10. Khaleel Ahmed (95 Wickets) is 5 wickets away from completing 100 T20 Wickets
11. David Warner (396 Sixes) is 4 Maximums away from completing 400 T20 Sixes
12. Mayank Agarwal (145 Sixes) is 5 Maximums away from completing 150 T20 Sixes
13. David Warner (149 Catches) needs one more catch to complete 150 T20 Catches
14. Jonny Bairstow (99 Catches) needs one more catch to complete 100 T20 Catches
15. Kuldeep Yadav and Tim Seifert, who were both part of KKR for the last 2 years and now playing together again for DC this season, born on the very same day – 14 December 1994.
5. Dream XI:
