IPL 2023 SRH vs DC Preview - Bottom 2 battle to stay in touch

Key match stats

Pitch Stats – Rajiv Gandhi Stadium

Average first innings score: 159
Average first innings winning score: 171
Average powerplay score: 46
Win % batting 1st vs batting 2nd: 46% / 52%

Team form SRH vs DC

SRH:LLWWL
DC: WLLLL

Recent meetings: IPL 2022 - DC won by 21 runs

Preview SRH vs DC

By the time this match has been completed, both teams will find themselves at the half way point of IPL 2023. To date their performances have ranged from at best patchy to at worst awful.

The Sunrisers were beaten at a canter by CSK down in Chennai. I wrote in a previous blog that it seemed as though SRH had found a potential winning formula to their batting but it was interesting that they abandoned that line-up almost immediately, dropping Mayank Agarwal down to a middle order slot and reinstating Abhishek Sharma at the top of the order.

Once Abhishek was dismissed, CSK's spinners and in particular Ravi Jadeja were able to strangle the right handed middle order and SRH were never given the opportunity to fight back from there.

By contrast, Delhi have remained fairly loyal at least to their struggling top order batsmen. DC's strength last year was undoubtedly their opening pair of Warner and Shaw who combined to provide the Capitals with the 2nd best average powerplay score of the tournament (54.1). So far this season they are well down on that figure (46.8) while only fellow strugglers KKR are losing more wickets in the first 6 overs than DC (2.2 on average).

IPL 2023 powerplay stats

The Capitals do at least come into this game having recorded their first win of the season. However, even that was a painful event to watch in a match that was delayed by over an hour due to rain, finishing gone midnight and in a stadium with a very eerie atmosphere as fans watched DC stumble over the line to a nervy win. In fact, the tension was such that had they have hooked Ricky Ponting's jaw up to the electricity grid, the rate at which he was chewing his gum could easily have powered the floodlights at the ground.

It was both sides weaknesses against slower bowling that were exposed again in their most recent matches. Sunrisers stats are boosted in that regard by their score of 228 against KKR while in the remaining 11 innings completed by these 2 teams, we've seen at best par but generally below average scores.

Statistic	Sunrisers	Capitals
Wickets lost to spin	15	21
Average vs spin	23.6	16.1
Strike rate vs spin	127.8	112.3

SRH and DC IPL 2023 stats vs spin

The Capitals do at least have an advantage in this match in as much as David Warner knowing the conditions at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium very well as a result of the great success he achieved while captain of the Sunrisers. Of course, the manner in which he left the franchise will undoubtedly add to his desire to succeed in this game and as we've seen from Warner throughout his long cricketing career, he is one of the most stubborn and determined players in the world game.

The Rajiv Gandhi pitch has probably lead to some of the more evenly matched games in IPL 2023. There is something there for the bowlers particularly early on if they get their lengths right but batsmen can score runs too. To date, SRH have chased in all 3 games they've played here and come up well short in the matches against Rajasthan and Mumbai chasing 203 and 192 respectively. A first innings score in the region of 170 could well be enough here particularly considering the form of the batsmen on both sides!

SRH vs DC head to head

DC bowling vs SRH batting

As well as Warner, Delhi do possess a couple of other former Sunrisers in the form of Khaleel Ahmed and Mustafizur Rahman. The Fizz took 10 wickets here at an average of 20 but it would be fair to say that he is not the bowler that he once was. Meanwhile Khaleel Ahmed started the first few games for the Capitals but has been benched following a few expensive overs. I have written before about the vulnerability of the Sunrisers batsmen to a left-arm bowler and so I'd imagine that fact plus Khaleel's record at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium might make DC reconsider him.

Khaleel Ahmed IPL bowling stats at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium

As noted above, Ravi Jadeja enjoyed himself against this right hand dominant Sunrisers batting line-up in the last match so you'd imagine that Axar Patel will play a key role in this game. Only Heinrich Klassen who has 34 runs from 21 deliveries has shown any kind of prior form against the slow left-armer.

Axar Patel T20 head to head vs current SRH squad

By comparison, a couple of the SRH middle order have feasted on the bowling of Kulpdeep Yadav in previous meetings. The chinaman bowler hasn't quite hit the form he showed last season but with 6 wickets he is his side's leading wicket taker so far in IPL 2023.

Kuldeep Yadav T20 head to head vs Markram and Tripathi

SRH bowling vs DC batting

It's difficult to say that Warner is the form player for DC because he's really not batted with any kind of fluency so far in IPL 2023. However, without his runs at the top of the order this Capitals side would truly be dead and buried. He returns to the Rajiv Gandhi where he is the all-time leading run scorer .

Warner IPL batting record at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium

In his first match against the Sunrisers last year, Warner made 92 not out from 58 balls and you wouldn't put money against him playing a crucial role in this match today. In fact, his career average against the current SRH bowling line-up in T20 cricket is 95!

Bhuvi vs Pandey T20 head to head

One other former Sunrisers player who hasn't enjoyed playing against a few of his former colleagues is Manish Pandey. DC could really do with him finding a bit of form in a middle order that has failed to back up the starts that Warner has provided.

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All stats used in this blog are from my own databases which are freely accessible below
IPL head to head player stats
IPL player stats by venue
IPL stadium statistics.
Images are my own with the exception of player profiles and highlights within GIFs which are not intended to infringe copyright- read full disclaimer. Background images are used under a creative commons license or otherwise royalty free.