IPL 2020: Match 19, RCB vs DC – Chahal’s battle with Dhawan-Iyer and Padikkal’s assurance against pace

Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi Capitals, often criticized for underperforming in the Indian Premier League, have been quite compact in the current season. Both the teams have earned six points each in the four matches played and have been good at sealing close moments better. On Monday, the two sides will be facing off in Dubai where the winner gets to top the points table.

Devdutt’s consistency against pacers

If anyone had followed Devdutt Padikkal through the 2019-20 domestic season, they would be talking more about his game against spinners. The Southpaw was quite dominant in the limited-overs tournaments and even smashed the national team spinners out of the park. However, in IPL 2020, Padikkal has been conservative against spin bowling and has hardly taken risks against them.

Across the 40 balls of spin faced in the tournament, Devdutt managed to score just 41 runs and hit only two fours. However, against pacers, he has been much more confident even while facing the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Jofra Archer and James Pattinson. On Monday, he will be up against Anrich Nortje and Kagiso Rabada providing him with a real challenge upfront.

More overs for Chahal in the powerplay?

Yuzvendra Chahal will be up against Delhi Capitals whose players can face the leg-spinner comfortably and few of them who struggle at the same time. Hence, usage of Chahal is going to be crucial for RCB whose spinner is currently the only spin bowler in the race for purple cap. If RCB are smart enough, they could be seen using Chahal for a couple of overs in the powerplay itself.

Shikhar Dhawan has got a poor record against Chahal while Prithvi Shaw could also struggle against the leg-spinner early on. Contrastingly, Shreyas Iyer, the Delhi Capitals skipper has often smashed Chahal out of the park. Iyer has scored 63 runs with help of six maximums in the 39 balls he faced from Chahal without getting out. Hence, RCB could be seen using Chahal early on and keep more overs of Navdeep Saini for death overs.

Can RCB’s batting stalwarts hand their team another win?

Delhi Capitals will have a big challenge on Monday where they will have to deal with both Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers. With Kohli returning to the form following his unbeaten fifty on Saturday, Capitals have to be even more careful with their decisions against the star duo. The franchise has always been under the threat of big knocks from both Virat and De Villiers who have got an average over 60.

Kohli has eight fifties in 20 IPL innings against the Delhi team while De Villiers has four in 11 and strikes at 164.12 against them. However, this time, Delhi Capitals are blessed with the presence of speedsters Anrich Nortje and Kagiso Rabada. Though the top class batters are capable enough of handling the DC’s new pace duo, they could be seen hurried with bouncers early in the innings.

(Stats as on October 4, 2020)