Indian Premier League 2021 | Can PBKS lift for Rabada-Nortje?

Rahul’s men eye swift turnaround versus DC after Friday collapse

April 17, 2021 03:05 pm | Updated 10:42 pm IST - Mumbai

Punjab Kings captain K.L. Rahul and Delhi Capitals skipper Rishabh Pant.

Punjab Kings captain K.L. Rahul and Delhi Capitals skipper Rishabh Pant.

One of the highlights of last year’s IPL was the sight of Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje causing mayhem in tandem. Delhi Capitals’ wait to watch the South African duo in action together for the first time this season will end against Punjab Kings at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday night.

While Rabada made his presence felt in his maiden outing, the loss against Rajasthan Royals, Nortje — after serving an extended isolation of 10 nights because of a false positive test report for COVID-19 — is set to begin his IPL-14 sojourn.

And the duo couldn’t have wished for better timing to spew venom — it will be interesting to see whether the PBKS batting, tormented by Deepak Chahar’s swing on Friday night, can lift itself for what promises to be another challenging examination.

With Chris Woakes having impressed in both of DC’s outings so far, Nortje is set to replace Tom Curran in the team. Barring that, the side is unlikely to make changes.

PBKS will be hoping that Mayank Agarwal repeats last season’s heroics against DC. It was Agarwal’s 89 against Delhi that had set IPL-13 alight, with a Super Over deciding the contest.

While the fans won’t mind a Super Over to end a Super Sunday, PBKS will want Agarwal, who has been quiet so far, to get going and offer captain Rahul much-needed support.

Teams

Punjab Kings: KL Rahul (c & wk), Mayank Agarwal, Chris Gayle, Mandeep Singh, Prabsimran Singh, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Sarfaraz Khan, Deepak Hooda, Murugan Ashwin, Ravi Bishnoi, Harpreet Brar, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Ishan Porel, Darshan Nalkande, Chris Jordan, Dawid Malan, Jhye Richardson, Shahrukh Khan, Riley Meredith, Moises Henriques, Jalaj Saxena, Utkarsh Singh, Fabian Allen, Saurabh Kumar.

Delhi Capitals: Rishabh Pant (c & wk), Ajinkya Rahane, Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Shimron Hetmyer, Marcus Stoinis, Chris Woakes, R Ashwin, Axar Patel, Amit Mishra, Lalit Yadav, Pravin Dubey, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Ishant Sharma, Avesh Khan, Steve Smith, Umesh Yadav, Ripal Patel, Vishnu Vinod, Lukman Meriwala, M Siddarth, Tom Curran, Sam Billings.

Match Starts: 7:30 pm. IST.

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