The Delhi Capitals (DC) journey has been a little bit inconsistent. The Axar Patel-led side has lost the last 2 back-to-back matches against KKR & RCB. All of a sudden, DC are placed in 5th position with 12 points from 10 matches. Karun Nair‘s form has been scratchy but has shown potential. Apart from the 89-run knock against MI, Karun Nair‘s form has been topsy-turvy.
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) have a small chance of qualifying for the play-offs. SRH would be banking on the home advantage but that also hasn’t been that fruitful. With 3 wins from 10 matches, SRH are in a must-win clash against DC. SRH have lost 3 matches out of 5 in Hyderabad as their batting style has been badly exposed, where an ultra-aggressive approach has raised questions on the management.
I think I am still batting well- Karun Nair
Karun Nair was seen speaking with the media ahead of the clash against SRH a day before. Karun Nair pointed out that DC is taking one match at a time and controlling the controllable. Karun Nair was aware of the fact that he is lagging behind in converting those starts into big ones.
“It’s about winning moments in the game. We’ve been doing that really well in most of the games that we’ve played, and are sitting in a decent position. But having said that, we need to go out there and play with a lot of freedom,” said Karun Nair.
“We’ve had a bit of a break just to have a reset. So we’ve had time as a team to go back to the things that we were doing well. It’s about peaking at the right time,” he stated.
“Every time we go out there, we look to win. So we would like to win tomorrow and keep going further in the tournament. The talk (in the dressing room) is only about what we can control and what we can improve on. What we can control is how we play and we win our games. We can’t keep looking behind us or in front of us,” he added.
“I think I’m still batting well. It’s about converting those 20 runs to bigger scores. That’s where you can change matches for your team and making those 15 or 20 runs is also impactful sometimes.” he concluded.
Critical match for DC
If we look at the game, SRH have a solid chance of spoiling the party of DC. SRH’s openers, Abhishek Sharma & Travis Head, haven’t been able to create the fear like they did in the 2024 edition. Abhishek Sharma undoubtedly has amassed 314 runs in 10 innings and struck 1 ton and a half century. Travis Head, on the other side, has similar stats with 281 runs in 10 innings with 2 half centuries.
The middle order of SRH, comprising Heinrich Klaasen, Ishan Kishan & Nitish Reddy, have been bamboozled by the opposition. SRH’s skipper Pat Cummins also hasn’t been able to deceive the batter. DC, on the other hand, have to win this match as one more defeat can complicate their journey to reach the play-offs.
DC skipper Axar Patel has got a very strong core spin bowling unit in the form of Kuldeep Yadav and Vipraj Nigam. The core presence of Indian players: Abhishek Porel, KL Rahul, Ashutosh Sharma & Karun Nair makes them a team a unique combination which has been quite invincible, but now DC have to peak quickly against a depleted SRH side.
Also Read:Â SRH vs DC : SRH Braces For A Playoff-Defining Showdown Against Scratchy DC