Kohli test awaits Delhi Capitals at Kotla (Preview)

By Baidurjo Bhose

New Delhi, April 27 (IANS) Having finally broken the voodoo at home, Delhi Capitals will start the game against Royal Challengers Bangalore as favourites when the two teams clash at the Feroz Shah Kotla on Sunday. DC and RCB have both been on a win streak in recent times, but the home team finally managing to adapt to the wickets at the Kotla gives them a slight edge.

While DC have won their last two games against Kings XI Punjab at home and against Rajasthan Royals in Jaipur, RCB have won 4 out of their last 5 games. In fact, in their last game against KXIP, they were 81/4 at one stage before making a brilliant comeback through AB de Villiers and Marcus Stoinis.A

The spirit is high in the RCB camp and not go forget that their captain has grown up playing at the Kotla and Virat Kohli will definitely share his knowledge with the rest of the team. In the bowling department as well, there is coach Ashish Nehra who knows exactly the areas to focus on and how to use the variety balls to fox opposition batsmen on the low and slow Kotla wicket.

Delhi will be hoping that their strokemakers at the top of the line-up show some restrain and don't try and hit every ball out of the park. Shikhar Dhawan has been brilliant at the top and has ensured that he makes full use of the powerplay overs. On the other hand, someone like Rishabh Pant has also mixed caution with aggression to guide the batting in the middle overs before unleashing himself on the opposition bowlers at the death.

Bowling is a bit of a worry for both the teams. While Kagiso Rabada has been exceptional for DC through the tournament, the same cannot be said of the other bowlers in the team. Sandeep Lamichhane though did impress in the last game against KXIP. DC will need all the bowlers to come together and perform in unison if they are to stop the RCB batting which has started to find form in recent times.

Kohli has already made it clear that the boys are looking to enjoy themselves after six consecutive losses this season and will express themselves freely on the pitch. DC on the other hand have 14 points from 11 games and look good to be qualifying for the play-offs for the first time in quite a few seasons.A

Squads: Delhi Capitals: Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Colin Ingram, Chris Morris, Sherfane Rutherford, Axar Patel, Kagiso Rabada, Amit Mishra, Ishant Sharma, Hanuma Vihari, Colin Munro, Ankush Bains, Jagadeesha Suchith, Manjot Kalra, Keemo Paul, Jalaj Saxena, Rahul Tewatia, Trent Boult, Avesh Khan, Nathu Singh, Bandaru Ayyappa, Sandeep Lamichhane

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Parthiv Patel, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Marcus Stoinis, Akshdeep Nath, Moeen Ali, Washington Sundar, Tim Southee, Navdeep Saini, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Siraj, Shimron Hetmyer, Devdutt Padikkal, Kulwant Khejroliya, Shivam Dube, Heinrich Klaasen, Himmat Singh, Colin de Grandhomme, Milind Kumar, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Prayas Barman, Dale Steyn, Pawan Negi

(Baidurjo Bhose can be contacted at [email protected])