Indian T20 League 2024: Punjab vs Delhi, Match 2 - MPL Opinio Prediction

Preview

After a grand Southern Derby, the caravan of the Indian T20 League (ITL) 2024 will move to the Northern part of India as Punjab (PUN) will host Delhi (DEL) at the newly constructed Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium, Mullanpur in Chandigarh. The second match of the season is scheduled to be played on Saturday (March 23). It will be the first game of the day, followed by an intense battle between Kolkata and Hyderabad in the evening.

Punjab had won six out of 14 matches last season and finished in 8th place. Delhi were below Punjab in the tally with five wins in 14 games.

Delhi will be out in the middle with Rishabh Pant at the helm. The wicketkeeper-batter is back in the team and will do the captaincy duty once again after missing out on the last season due to a life-threatening accident.

Delhi released a total of 11 players from their squad before heading into the mini-auction. In the auction, they managed to secure nine players. Harry Brook, Tristan Stubbs, Jhye Richardson, and Shai Hope are the overseas players bought by Delhi in the auction. They spent a humongous amount of INR 7.2 crore for Kumar Kushagara, the wicketkeeper-batter from Jharkhand.

Brook pulled out of the IPL due to personal reasons, while Lungi Ngidi has been ruled out of the tournament due to an ankle injury. Things got interesting when Delhi decided to replace Ngidi, a bowler, with Jake Fraser-McGurk, an Australian batter.

Punjab released a total of five players before the mini-auction, including Shahrukh Khan and Bhanuka Rajapaksa. Shikhar Dhawan will once again lead the side, and Jitesh Sharma has been appointed as his deputy.

They shelled out INR 11.75 crore for Harshal Patel and INR 8 crore for Rilee Rossouw. They also got Chris Woakes for INR 4.2 crore. Apart from these three, Punjab bought five uncapped players in the auction.

Also Check: Kolkata vs Hyderabad, Match 3 - MPL Opinio Prediction

Punjab vs Delhi Head to Head

Delhi and Punjab have played a total of 32 matches against each other and both teams have won 16 matches each. However, Punjab have won just a single game against Delhi in their last five outings. Both teams won one game each against each other last season.

Probable Playing XIs

Punjab

Shikhar Dhawan (c), Prabhsimran Singh (wk), Jonny Bairstow, Harpreet Singh Bhatia, Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma, Sam Curran, Harshal Patel, Rahul Chahar, Kagiso Rabada, Arshdeep Singh

Delhi

Prithvi Shaw, David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Rishabh Pant (c & wk), Yash Dhull, Tristan Stubbs, Axar Patel, Anrich Nortje, Kuldeep Yadav, Khaleel Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar

Pitch Report

The Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium, Mullanpur, in Chandigarh, is a newly constructed stadium and will be hosting an Indian T20 League game for the first time.

The stadium hosted a total of nine matches of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy last year. The teams batting second managed to win just two out of these nine matches. The teams batting first score more than 150 runs in seven out of the nine games.

The average first innings score in the last five T20 matches has been 164 runs. The average number of wickets lost per inning is seven. The team winning the toss might look to bat.

The surface might have a decent offering for both batters and bowlers. The Pacers are likely to play a crucial role throughout the match.

Punajb vs Delhi, Match 2: Today's MPL Opinio Prediction

Punjab vs Delhi Key Player Battles

Mitchell Marsh vs Punjab’s bowlers

The all-rounder has a strong record against the pacers of Punjab. Kagiso Rabada and Harshal Patel are the only pacers in Punjab who have dismissed Marsh so far in T20s in the last five years.

He has made 34 runs off 18 deliveries against Kagiso Rabada, 20 runs off 14 deliveries against Sam Curran, and 19 runs off eight deliveries against Arshdeep Singh. Marsh has a batting average of 40 against Nathan Ellis.

David Warner vs Punjab’s bowlers

The left-handed batter has a batting average of 48 in the Powerplay. He has scored 121 runs off 75 deliveries off Kagiso Rabada. He has made 61 runs off 40 deliveries against Arshdeep Singh. Against Rahul Chahar, Warner has amassed 65 runs off 40 deliveries.

Kagiso Rabada vs Delhi’s batters

The Proteas pacer has dismissed David Warner on four occasions in 75 deliveries. He takes a wicket every 15 deliveries against the right-handed batters. He has an economy of a mere six in 7 to 11 overs.

Jitesh Sharma vs Delhi’s bowlers

The wicketkeeper-batter has an average of 28 against Kuldeep Yadav. He has a strike rate of 173 against left-arm pacers. Jitesh has a batting average of 221 in the last three overs.

Also Check: ITL 2024 Orange Cap

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