Rajasthan Royals registered a remarkable victory against Sunrisers Hyderabad in their previous game and would aim to keep the momentum when they meet Delhi Capitals.
After making a remarkable comeback against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Sunday evening clash, Rajasthan Royals will be aiming to bank on momentum as they take on the high-flying Delhi Capitals in IPL 2020. The RR rode on the brilliant innings of Rahul Tewatia and Riyan Parag, who remained unbeaten in the chase which looked lost when the side's top-order failed to step up.
Bolstered by the arrival of Ben Stokes, Royals will now hope for a stronger show from its slightly off-colour top order when the side tries to settle scores against second-placed Delhi Capitals in their return leg IPL match.
Skipper Smith and Sanju Samson have failed to make any significant contribution with the bat since setting the Sharjah ground on fire in their first two matches.
Jos Buttler produced a superb 44-ball 70 against Mumbai Indians but didn't capitalise on the starts in the last two matches.
In fact, if it wasn't for Rahul Tewatia, the Royals would still be in the dumps.
The all-rounder, who had blasted five sixes against Kings XI Punjab, once again rescued RR with a 28-ball 45 in their last game against Sunrisers.
Delhi, on the other hand, were brought down by Mumbai Indians in their last game and Shreyas Iyer's men will look to shrug off the odd defeat and get back to the top with a professional display.
The Capitals possess an explosive batting department as well as a formidable bowling unit with Kagiso Rabada emerging as the best bowler this season, snaring 17 wickets so far.
He has been supported well by fellow South African pacer Anrich Nortje (8 wickets) and Harshal Patel.
Ravichandran Ashwin too has bowled well in the power-play and along with Axar Patel, has done well to suffocate the opposition teams.
However, it was Marcus Stoinis, whose all-round show floored RR in their last face-off and Smith would hope that his side has his match in Stokes.
In bowling, Jofra Archer has led the charge for RR. He, along with the spin duo of Tewatia and Shreyas Gopal, have consistently figured in the XI, which has gone through a lot of chopping and changing.
For DC, Shikhar Dhawan's return to form further boosts their batting order, featuring Prithvi Shaw and Iyer in the top four.
However, with wicket-keeper batsman Rishabh Pant ruled out for a week due to a hamstring injury, DC have been forced to drop Shimron Hetmyer and include Australian Alex Carey.
It also gave Ajinkya Rahane his first match of this IPL.
Teams:
Rajasthan Royals: Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Sanju Samson, Andrew Tye, Kartik Tyagi, Steven Smith (c), Ankit Rajpoot, Shreyas Gopal, Rahul Tewatia, Jaydev Unadkat, Mayank Markande, Mahipal Lomror, Oshane Thomas, Riyan Parag, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Anuj Rawat, Akash Singh, David Miller, Manan Vohra, Shashank Singh, Varun Aaron, Tom Curran, Robin Uthappa, Aniruddha Joshi, Jofra Archer.
Delhi Capitals: Shreyas Iyer (c), Ravichandran Ashwin, Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Shimron Hetmyer, Kagiso Rabada, Ajinkya Rahane, Amit Mishra, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ishant Sharma, Axar Patel, Sandeep Lamichhane, Keemo Paul, Daniel Sams, Mohit Sharma, Anrich Nortje, Alex Carey (wk), Avesh Khan, Tushar Deshpande, Harshal Patel, Marcus Stoinis, Lalit Yadav.
