The Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam will host the 16th match of IPL 2024 today as the Delhi Capitals (DC) clash with the Kolkata Knight Riders. This will be DC‘s fourth outing in the tournament, while KKR will be looking to extend their winning streak to three matches having secured convincing victories in their opening two encounters.
Delhi Capitals (DC) will be aiming at a second straight win in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 when they host a high-flying Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) side at the Dr. Y.S. Rajashekar Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam. DC at their newly found home would be ecstatic after a thrilling win over CSK and would try to repeat the same at Vizag.
On the Contrary KKR would aim to join Rajasthan Royals (RR) as the only second team to remain unbeaten in IPL 2024 so far on the top of the table after ending their matches with Delhi Capitals (DC).
Previous match performances of DC and KKR
DC broke their two-game losing streak by producing a fantastic performance against reigning champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on Sunday night. The victory certainly gave the Rishabh Pant-led side a truckload of confidence. On the other hand, KKR boasts a 100 per cent win record in IPL 2024 so far. They have won both of their games, against SRH (by 4 runs) and RCB (by 7 wickets).
In their last match, Delhi surpassed Chennai Super Kings by 20 runs to get their first win in this edition of the tournament. Delhi had won thanks to a clinical batting performance from its top three batters, including David Warner and Rishabh Pant who scored half-centuries to help the team post a big total. Khaleel Ahmed then bowled an economical spell, taking two wickets to ensure DC’s win.
On the other side, in their last match, Shreyas Iyer-led Kolkata comfortably defeated Royal Challengers Bengaluru by 7 wickets to remain unassailable thus far in the ongoing season. KKR’s Sunil Narine had delivered an all-round performance in the match as he scored 47 off 22 balls and took one wicket.
DC vs KKR Head to Head
These two teams have faced each other 32 times in the Indian Premier League so far. The H2H contest is very tight as KKR have won 16 games and DC won 15 while one ended with no result.
DC vs KKR: Team News
Visakhapatnam might be Delhi Capitals’ alternate home venue, but it was a sea of yellow when they played here a couple of days back. That was mostly down to them playing against Chennai Super Kings – more specially, MS Dhoni. When they play Kolkata Knight Riders, Capitals will hope for some more red and blue in the stands as they look to climb up the points table.
Capitals know what it’s like to fall behind early in the IPL. They lost their first five games in IPL 2023, which made coming back into the tournament tough. The victory against CSK was important keeping that in mind. They don’t have the batting depth that some of the other teams boast of, and will need their top order to fire again, and keep firing through the tournament.
Crucially, Prithvi Shaw, who was among the runs in his first outing in IPL 2024 in the game against CSK, and David Warner have excellent numbers against KKR – no one has scored more than Warner’s 1075 against KKR, while Shaw averages 45 against KKR, and his highest score of 99 also came against them, in 2019. Rishabh Pant’s move to No. 3 against CSK showed positive intent from Capitals, and he repaid the faith with a quick half-century.
But they will want runs from the other batters, too. It won’t be easy against KKR, who have won both their games so far this season. They had a scare in the opening game of the season against Sunrisers Hyderabad but scored a clinical win against RCB. KKR don’t have a lot of holes to plug, but the one area that needs sorting is their powerplay bowling.
It’s still early days in the tournament, but KKR have the poorest powerplay economy among all the teams so far – 10.75. That is partly down to Mitchell Starc having a nightmare start to his IPL season. The fast bowler has been taken for a combined 100 runs and is yet to take a wicket. In conditions which might aid swing and seam, Starc will hope for better returns. As will the batting pack with the exception of Andre Russell, Phil Salt and Venkatesh Iyer.
DC vs KKR Pitch conditions.
The match between Delhi and Kolkata will be played in the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam. The pitches in the stadium are known to favour batters.
The pitch for the first game in Vizag had a decent covering of grass. It aided swing and seam movement almost throughout the 40 overs, and even swung even more under lights. Similar conditions could be expected for the DC vs KKR game, too. There’s also a warning for excessive heat and humidity in Vizag, so something for the teams to note.
As seen in the DC vs CSK clash, the pitch in Vizag is good for batting as the ball comes pretty well to hit your shots. There will be some early swing but nothing much in it for the bowlers. It might be another high-scoring game on Wednesday.
Form and Fitness.
After being overlooked for the first two games, Prithvi Shaw “came out of the gate like a raging bull”, in the words of Mitchell McClenaghan on ESPNCricinfo’s Timeout.
Shaw has had a rough time of it on and off the field in the recent past, but on Saturday, as he strode out for his first hit in IPL 2024, he seemed to be in great touch, scoring a 27-ball 43. Shaw’s form is important to Capitals’ hopes of going deep in the tournament, and they will be delighted with the way he has begun.
Every time Mitchell Starc comes on to bowl, it comes with that INR 24.75 crore price tag attached to him. Playing in the IPL for the first time since 2015, Starc has leaked runs big time. He went for 53 in his opening game against SRH and then 47 against RCB and is yet to figure in the wickets column. He will dearly hope to turn his fortunes around the next time he is out in the park.
Vital Stats that matter
• Pant needs 65 runs to reach 3000 runs in IPL. If he gets there, he will be the 22nd player in the league to achieve the mark.
• Kuldeep picks up a wicket every six balls against KKR, his former franchise. In three matches to date, he has ten wickets with best bowling figures of 4 for 14.
• Warner has smashed Sunil Narine for 195 runs in 123 balls in 16 IPL innings, only falling to him twice.
• Pant strikes at 195.00 against Andre Russell in the IPL but has also fallen to the fast bowler three times in six innings.
DC vs KKR Predicted XI
Delhi Capitals predicted XI : Prithvi Shaw, David Warner, Marsh Mitchell, Rishabh Pant (c & wk.), Tristan Stubbs, Axar Patel, Abhishek Porel, Ishant Sharma, Anrich Nortje, Khaleel Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar
Kolkata Knight Riders predicted XI : Phil Salt (wk.), Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer (C), Ramandeep Singh, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Mitchell Starc, Anukul Roy, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarty
DC vs KKR Fantasy XI : David Warner, Shreyas Iyer, Prithvi Shaw, Tristan Stubbs, Kuldeep Yadav, Mukesh Kumar, Rishabh Pant(Vice-captain and wicket-keeper), Andre Russell (Captain), Sunil Narine, Harshit Rana, Anrich Nortje
DC vs KKR Match prediction
According to Google’s win probability, KKR has a 54 percent chance of winning the match and thus continuing its unbeaten run in IPL 2024. On the other side DC will feel confident after a win against CSK and as it is their home conditions, they will fell good to beat KKR. With the trend of home teams winning games, we back Delhi Capitals to win this match.