DC vs SRH, IPL 2023 highlights: Sunrisers beat Delhi by 9 runs

Agarwal is bounced out on this track, how about that from Ishant Sharma. He is taken completely by surprise by the way it climbed on him, his blind hook does nothing for him apart from give him an edge that flies to the wicketkeeper Phil Salt.

Big appeal for LBW off the very next ball and the umpire gives it. Agarwal has a long discussion with Abhishek before taking the DRS at the last second. It was too close for comfort, ball tracking showed that the contact on the pads was marginally outside the line of off.

Well the first ball of the second over was sent wide so it is technically four runs off one ball for Agarwal. Eight runs from first over, now four more so fairly good start for SRH. 

Ishant Sharma errs with his lines in the second and third balls and Abhishek Sharma punishes him for it.

We had some inclement weather earlier but the pitch was covered and unaffected by it, hopefully those clouds are blown away. 60m boundary on one side, 67m on the other side, 74m hit down the ground. All three games here have been won by the chasing team, but the highest score batting first is 172. We are seeing a surface that doesn't have grass, we are seeing a surface that is low scoring. Absolutely no grass-cover at all. Make best use of the surface by batting first - say Ian Bishop and Kevin Pietersen.

David Warner(c), Philip Salt(w), Mitchell Marsh, Manish Pandey, Priyam Garg, Axar Patel, Ripal Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Anrich Nortje, Ishant Sharma, Mukesh Kumar

Harry Brook, Mayank Agarwal, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram(c), Heinrich Klaasen(w), Abhishek Sharma, Abdul Samad, Akeal Hosein, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mayank Markande, Umran Malik

“We are going to bat. Wicket looks on the drier side, there shouldn't be much dew tonight according to the locals. Hopefully we bat well and put a good total. All experimentation is finished, it's time to get the results. Time for the guys to express themselves and enjoy. We lost Washi, that's a big loss for us, but it's an opportunity for someone to cement a spot in the side. We are letting ourselves down with the bat. We haven't been up to par, haven't posted good totals. Akeal Hosein makes his debut, Samad also comes back.”

“It's about putting the best foot forward, and adapt to the conditions. We are losing wickets in a cluster. Need to hit down the wicket, need to put a good batting performance. We got to bowl well in the first six overs. Home and away (games) that's a bit challenging, but we are enjoying it. Priyam Garg makes his debut, Aman Khan is out.”

SRH win toss and choose to bat. 

In a season in which teams have breached the 200-run mark more times than they did throughout last season, DC have gone past 170 just once. The abject failure of their batting lineup is one of the biggest reasons behind them being last on the standings and they will hope that they turn a corner today.

Sunrisers have struggled to find an opening combination as well. They started the season with Mayank and Abhishek Sharma at the top, before sending Harry Brook up to open after he struggled to find his groove in the middle order. Apart from his century against Knight Riders, Brook has failed to fire.

It was the Axar Patel show that gave DC victory. They scored 144/9 with Axar being joint top scorer having made 34 runs in as many balls. In reply, SRH were restricted to a score of 137/6, with Axar returning figures of 2/21.

Kuldeep Yadav has generally done a good job of containing teams in the middle overs but today it might get a little complicated for the spinner. Aiden Markram (SR: 245.45) and Rahul Tripathi (SR: 200) have the wood on Kuldeep Yadav, making this middle-overs tussle one to watch-out for where the conditions could actually be in the favour of the spinner.

Aiden Markram and Heinrich Klaasen haven't clicked together too many times for SRH this season and they would be hoping it can happen today. Markram (141.12) and Klaasen (145.3) both have a strike-rate above 140 in T20 cricket since the beginning of 2022.

"Whether the guys are performing or not, it's my job to have a good honest open conversation. Nothing is different with Prithvi. When he arrived this year, he was with the NCA for a few weeks, working really hard on his fitness and was in good physical shape. His work ethics in the training and what he did in the nets suggested that this might be a big year for him... but that hasn't worked out just yet. There's still a long way to go. If things don't work out with our current top-order, there's no reason why he couldn't be back in the team and if he gets back, hopefully he will be able to finish the tournament strongly."

This was suppose to be Prithvi Shaw's breakout season considering how he plundered runs in the domestic circuit. Instead, what has happened is that the DC opener has scored 47 runs in six innings at an average of 7.83. He was dropped for DC's last match. While it didn't exactly work for DC, with replacement Phil Salt getting out for a golden duck, there is a chance that Salt will be chosen once again today.  

Abhishek Sharma, Harry Brook, Aiden Markram(c), Mayank Agarwal, Heinrich Klaasen(w), Marco Jansen, Mayank Markande, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Umran Malik, Rahul Tripathi, Adil Rashid, Akeal Hosein, Glenn Phillips, Samarth Vyas, Anmolpreet Singh, Mayank Dagar, Upendra Yadav, Kartik Tyagi, Sanvir Singh, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Abdul Samad, Nitish Reddy, Vivrant Sharma

David Warner(c), Philip Salt(w), Mitchell Marsh, Manish Pandey, Sarfaraz Khan, Axar Patel, Aman Hakim Khan, Ripal Patel, Anrich Nortje, Kuldeep Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mukesh Kumar, Lungi Ngidi, Mustafizur Rahman, Praveen Dubey, Khaleel Ahmed, Rovman Powell, Priyam Garg, Prithvi Shaw, Lalit Yadav, Chetan Sakariya, Yash Dhull, Vicky Ostwal, Abishek Porel, Rilee Rossouw

The win against SRH gave DC confidence, now another win will help them make a positive move in the league table for the first time this season. They managed to defend a score of 145 and this notch a seacond win in a row after starting off the season with five back to back defeats. SRH, on the other hand, are on the nosedive. They have lost four back to back matches and a defeat here would make them DC's replacement at the bottom of the table. May the relatively better team win!