Shikhar Dhawan managed the chase of a target of 126 brilliantly well after Shakib-al-Hasan led an excellent bowling effort for the Sunrisers Hyderabad against the Rajasthan Royals. Hence the Daredevils should be travelling to the Sawai Mansingh stadium believing that they could snatch a victory over the hosts.
With both teams looking to get their first win on board, there could not be a bigger motivation to produce a complete game of cricket. As the LIVE match update can be seen at Hotstar as well as premium versions of other broadcasting networks.
In a game where individual brilliance might just be the differentiator, Delhi Daredevils holds a slight edge over Rajasthan Royals in this fixture due to their deep batting line-up. The player Jofra Archer is recovering from a side-strain. Archer and Gowtham are all-rounders who can also bowl as well, giving Rahane tons of variety with his attack.
Delhi will start as favourites against Rajasthan but unlike their first match if the likes of in-form D’Arcy Short, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler or Ben Laughlin fire on the morrow, it could well be Rajasthan’s field day at home as all the players have reputation of turning the game around. There is also a three-way fight between Colin Munro, Rishabh Pant and Glenn Maxwell for one of two available spaces in my team now, making it even more hard. Daniel Christian is likely to make way for him. However, it must be remembered that David Warner contributed 1500 runs in both the tournaments and was also a very inspirational captain who transformed an ordinary team into an nearly invincible squad of today. We lost crucial wickets in between. Siddarth Kaul scalped two wickets for 17 runs.
Munro has scored his 400 T20 runs this year at a strike-rate of 189.57, while Rishabh Pant’s career strike-rate of 161.59 is the best among all Indian batsmen with more than 1000 runs in T20 cricket. But it was the only blip in what turned out to be a flawless chase to a below-par total. I flawed in my responsibilities as the Vice Captain of Australian Cricket team. Top that off with an unbeaten-36 to anchor the innings alongside Dhawan and it’s a big tick for the new captain in game one. He was the star for Rising Pune Supergiant last season, with his performance taking them through to the playoffs.
Observing that it is just the beginning of the tournament, he expressed confidence that the team would give its best in the coming matches.
“I think Shane Warne is a great bowler and a legend, definitely he’ll have some impact (on Rajasthan Royals) but we have Ricky Ponting with us, his captain!“.