IPL Boundary Blackjack - Round 2, Match 7 - DC v GT

Yeah, I know you're reading this blog and thinking that as an Englishman, he'll make up any excuse to talk about the weather and that is partially true.

However, it is unseasonably wet and cool across much of Northern India at the moment and as such, the last 2 IPL games have been impacted.

What are the odds on the same happening to this match? Hopefully fairly low. There are still some localized thunderstorms around the Delhi area but the forecast suggests we'd be unlucky if one hit the ground this evening. Fingers crossed!

Both teams will be keen to get out and get the result. The Capitals are chasing a 3rd straight win while the Titans just need to get on the board!

DC were comfortable winners here in a day/night match on Saturday where once again, young Sameer Rizvi stole the show. His 160 runs in IPL 2026 is almost as many as he'd managed in his first 2 seasons combined (172).

At the moment, the only concern for DC is what if he fails? He's scored 23 of their 41 boundaries so far this season. So if you're playing IPL Boundary Blackjack, perhaps it's his form you should be most interested in.

Nissanka and Miller did at least get some time at the crease against MI but the experienced KL Rahul has blanked in both matches so far while Nitish Rana has failed to hit his straps for his new franchise.

With ball in hand, DC have been brilliant. They've used 6 bowlers in their 2 games to date, none of whom have bowled their full quota of 8 overs which shows that this is a bowling unit rather than a side reliant on the excellence of 1 or 2 stars.

Axar Patel has used those resources masterfully and himself is bowling with excellent control. His and Kuldeep's match-up against this GT middle order could be crucial.

Shubman Gill is set to return to open and lead the team and as always the Titans top 3 will be key to their chances of victory. After that, things are looking far less certain.

Glenn Phillips has failed twice, Washington Sundar is a good batsmen but does he have the game to play at 4 or 5 in a T20 side at this level? I'm not sure. His selection appears to be more a case of GT wanting a left-hander, any left-hander, to fill that role with Sai Sudharsan the only other leftie in the top 5.

Tewatia and Shahrukh Kahn have failed to get going in their innings so far with GT getting to around 120 for 2 in both innings to date and then falling away in the later stages.

Will that prompt a change in personnel for this game? They have Tom Banton on the bench as a straight swap for Glenn Phillips. With his array of sweeps, reverses and switch hits, he's probably better suited to take on DC's slow bowlers.

They could consider bringing in Anuj Rawat, a left-hander who has been floating around the IPL for some time now without ever really making a significant impact. As a Delhi man in domestic cricket, he'd certainly know conditions here very well.

With the ball too, it's just not happening for the Titans at the moment. Their seamers have been effective at times, for example, Prasidh Krishna's burst against PBKS but otherwise, they are leaking a lot of runs with Rabada and Siraj both struggling to impact games.

One bowler who I do really like the look of is Ashok Sharma who has bowled with good control in some of his side's high pressure moments. If the more establish players in this GT attack can turn-up to support him then the Titan's still look like a very decent side.

The last match here at the Arun Jaitley saw much lower scoring than we've generally seen over the last couple years here. In fact, the slow nature of the pitch was more in keeping with what we've been used to historically at Delhi.

That was of course a day night match and there's been wet weather around so we'll wait to see if it's quite as dry and slow as the pitch used on Saturday.

If it is then GT might look to bolster their slow bowling options with Sai Kishore and use Washington Sundar's offies (he didn't bowl at all against RR).

This is the last match of Round 2 of IPL Boundary Blackjack and it'd take a mircale to knock @fullcoverbetting off top spot.

The real battle looks to be for 2nd and 3rd with 4 sides within touching distance of each other. A real high scoring game could bring in teams from the chasing pack who might as well go big before they go home.

Position	Player	Points	Hits	Busts
1	@fullcoverbetting	200	5	1
2	@imfarhad	175	5	1
3	@r1c4rd0	172	5	1
4	@valentin86	163	5	1
5	@hatdogsensei	161	5	1
6	@gwajnberg	147	5	1
7	@bitandi	136	3	3
8	@onemanonewrite	135	5	1
9	@tortangkahoy	134	5	1
10	@talesfrmthecrypt	126	3	3
11	@doombot75	125	3	3
12	@wildlifelover	120	3	3
13	@tengolotodo	119	3	3
14	@blockchainfpl	104	2	4
15	@shitsignals	100	2	4
16	@sportsgeek	91	3	1
17	@rajpootg	88	2	2
18	@uwelang	61	2	1
19	@reiseamateur	52	2	1
20	@blanchy	44	5	1
21	@gcollects	35	1	0
22	@tsnaks	0	0	0
23	@niallon11	0	0	0