IPL 2021: DC vs KKR – Qualifier 2 : Preview, Playing XI, Pitch Report & Updates

After defeating Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Eliminator, Kolkata Knight Riders will now face a challenge against Delhi Capitals in Qualifier 2. KKR are coming into this game after a four-wicket win against RCB in Sharjah, which came on the back of a collective show. 

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Eoin Morgan and co. have been quite ruthless in their approach so far in the UAE leg, winning six of their last eight games. They have the momentum going on with them and are totally worth watching in a high stake game such as this.

Delhi Capitals have seriously earned the right to be given another shot at the final after winning 10 games in the league stage and finishing right at the top of the table. However, their loss against CSK was a setback from which they would hope to bounce back. 

They did lose a tight game but they have bigger concerns as far as balancing their XI is concerned. Since Marcus Stoinis’ injury, DC looks a bit too uncertain with his place. 

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Having said that, a wonderful game of cricket is expected to play out between these two teams. Both have a lot going on for them which makes this contest even more exciting to watch out for. The biggest question will be which team can keep their nerves and end up qualifying for the final.

Pitch Report

The pitch in Sharjah has been all over the place. The short boundaries have made clearing the fence quite easy but batters have struggled with their timing because of low bounce and slowness from the surface. A score of 150 to 160 will be a match-winning while anything lower than that can also be worth fighting for. 

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Predicted Playing XI

Delhi Capitals: Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (Captain/WK), Shimron Hetmyer, Tom Curran/Marcus Stoinis, Axar Patel, R Ashwin, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Avesh Khan.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Shubman Gill, Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana, Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan (c), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Shakib Al Hasan/Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Lockie Ferguson, Shivam Mavi, Varun Chakaravarthy

Key Players

Sunil Narine

Narine has time and time again shown he is one of the most valuable T20 players in the world and in the eliminator his form was extremely good. He scored 26 runs and also went on to pick four wickets to add his tally of 10 wickets from the league round.  

Prithvi Shaw

The opening batter of Delhi has some good scores against KKR under his belt. 62 in 2018, 99 and 14 in 2019, 66 in 2020 and 82 earlier this season. This season he has scored more than 450 runs. He scored a brilliant 34-ball 60 against Chennai in Qualifier 1 as well.