Delhi Capitals (DC) find themselves in a bit precarious position. The Axar Patel-led side has won 6 matches out of 11 and have 13 points and are placed at 5th position. The abrupt abandonment of IPL 2025 and resumption won’t be easy, given DC‘s last game was against PBKS at Dharamshala when the game was halted on 8th May 2025.
Gujarat Titans (GT) on the other side have had a smooth tourney so far. They have won 8 matches out of 11 and are placed at 2nd position, a win for them would be ample to qualify for the playoffs. Shubman Gill’s brigade though can’t afford to take DC lightly on 18th May at Delhi.
Pitch & Conditions:
Delhi has been a high-scoring venue with an average first-innings score of 215 since IPL 2024. Barring that, the weather remains clear for the game night.
Head-to-Head: DC 3 – 3 GT. In Delhi, it’s a 1-1 record for both these teams.
Delhi Capitals (DC)
The absence of Mitchell Starc is a huge blow for the side. Starc has a rare ability of bowling back to back yorkers if we look at the super over match against RR. Starc had taken 14 wickets in 11 matches at a strike rate of 26.14, which is quite a decisive point.
The signing of Mustafizur Rahman would be fascinating given his left arm off-cutters and pace variations is subtle. Mustafizur though has played 1st T20I match against UAE for Bangladesh on Saturday as DC have a tough call to make.
Axar Patel & Kudeep Yadav would be key to stop the flow of runs against GT’s top order. Axar should make sure that he & Kuldeep bowl in tandem at least 2 overs back to back as they can hunt in a pack.
Probable XII: Faf du Plessis, Abishek Porel, KL Rahul (wk), Sameer Rizvi/Karun Nair, Axar Patel (C), Tristan Stubbs, Ashutosh Sharma, Vipraj Nigam, Mukesh Kumar/Mohit Sharma, Dushmantha Chameera, Kuldeep Yadav, T Natarajan
Gujarat Titans (GT)
GT’s Buttler is available only for the playoff stages, citing national commitments. Sai Sudharsan & Shubman Gill have been the backbone of GT’s batting lineup. Shubman Gill has amassed 508 runs in 11 innings at an average of 50.8 and has struck 5 half-centuries. Sai Sudharsan is ahead of Gill with 509 runs to his name in 11 innings and has smashed 5 half-centuries at an average of 46.27.
Probable XII: Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (C), Jos Buttler (wk), Sherfane Rutherford, Rahul Tewatia, Shahrukh Khan, Rashid Khan, R Sai Kishore, Arshad Khan, Gerald Coetzee/Kagiso Rabada, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna
Key Stats
- DC’s opening partnership averages only 20.18 in this IPL season, the lowest among all teams. On the other hand, GT’s openers have added 634 runs at an average of 57.63 in 11 games so far – the most by any team.
- Kuldeep Yadav has picked up only two wickets in his last five matches, averaging 75.5 with an economy of 7.94. In his first five matches, he bagged 10 wickets at an average of 11.2 with an economy of 5.6
- During earlier match in IPL 2025 between both the teams, GT had emerged as victorious as GT chased down a massive total of 204 runs as there was final over thriller against DC as there was Jos Buttler’s brilliance who scored 97 runs in 54 balls