Delhi Capitals vs Punjab Kings - IPL 2022 Match 32: Who Will Win?

Delhi Capitals Team Preview

The Delhi Capitals are currently eighth on the leader board with four points. Having only played five matches, they have a run rate of +0.219. Their speckled performance in the tournament to date is showing their lack of consistency.

The Royal Challengers Bangalore handed them a defeat, winning by 16 runs. The Challengers posted a strong score at 189, and while the win seemed to be going in the direction of Capitals, by the end of each innings, it was possible to see things go awry. By the first 15 overs, the Challengers were 115/5. Within the last five, the brilliance of Dinesh Karthik had taken them to 189. The Capitals also reached 115/5 in their chase at 15 overs, however, their batting tanked.

David Warner added the bulk of runs reaching a run total of 66 from 38 balls. Within his stretch, Warner his five 6’s and four 4’s. Looking at stats for this season, his performance from this game elevated him to joint second for most 50’s (2), a title that he shares with Prithvi Shaw. After Rovman Powell was out for a duck, the momentum seemed to have been lost. Between Lalit Yadav, Shardul Thakur, Axar Patel, and Kuldeep Yadav, they added a further 38 runs. Patel has the fourth best batting average in the tournament at 78.00. If you are thinking about IPL betting, Patel could be a good choice for the top batsman market.

Thakur, Khaleed Ahmed, Patel, and Kuldeep Yadav all managed to take a wicket. No bowler stood out particularly as they all leaked a good number of runs. Thakur was the most economical bowler, with an economy of 6.75. Yadav is now joint third for most wickets taken (11) in the competition. Although Lalit Yadav didn’t bowl for this game, he is currently second in the category for most economical bowler at 6.28 for his previous performances.

Punjab Kings Team Preview

The Punjab Kings failed to qualify for the play-offs in 2021. At the current point in the competition this year, they are only slightly better having won three matches in six games, in comparison to two in their 2021 campaign. Is this enough to give them a different fate?

The Sunrisers Hyderabad denied them a second consecutive victory, winning by 7 wickets. The Kings got off to a great start after dismissing the Hyderabad skipper Kane Williamson, however, their momentum slowly came to a halt after the Sunrisers were able to get two solid partnerships.

Liam Livingstone was the player to add the most runs to the Kings’ total. He scored 60 runs from 33 balls, and scored four 6’s and five 4’s. Livingstone now is fifth in the IPL 2022 leaderboard for most runs at 224. His performance in this match also secured him the top spot for most 50s (3). Livingstone is a good candidate for top batsman if you are wanting to make an IPL prediction for this match at one of the IPL betting sites.

There weren’t many other notable batting performances, and only three other players managed to get a strike rate above 100: Prabhsimran Singh (14 off 11 balls), Jonny Bairstow (12 off 10 balls), and Jitesh Sharma (11 off 8 balls). Shahrukh Khan scored 26 runs from 28 balls to give a strike rate of 92.86. Rahul Chahar, Vaibhav Arora, and Arshdepe Singh were all woefully short of form. They failed to add a single run in four balls before all being dismissed.

Chahar was one of the better bowlers, taking two wickets while conceding 28 runs for an economy of 7.00. Kagiso Rabada was the other player to take a wicket. Rabada conceded 29 runs in his four overs spell for an economy of 7.25.

We are likely to see the return of skipper Mayank Agarwal after he was removed from the playing XI due to a toe injury.

Toss Prediction

It will be interesting to see if any of the captains are tempted to bat first, if they win the toss. Three of the six matches played at this stadium have resulted in a win from the defending team - something that is turning the trend of the IPL so far on its head. Although this statistic shows that the playing field is evening up between batting first and second, we still think our toss prediction will remain the same. Therefore, we think that Rishabh Pant or Shikhar Dhawan will elect to bat second should they win.

Pitch Conditions

We have seen that the Maharashtra Cricket Association is fairly helpful for the bowlers. The batters have also been able to use the wicket to their advantage, however, we haven’t seen any terribly high scores. There has only been one instance of breaking 200, which was done by the Rajasthan Royals (210) against the Sunrisers Hyderabad in Match 5. Currently, the average first innings score on this wicket Is 178.2, with the winning first innings average at 193.0. Unlike other pitches in the IPL 2022, the team batting first has won 50% of the time. This breaks the trend we have been seeing so far where the chasing team has been enjoying a slight advantage. The average Powerplay score is 41.5, while for the death overs, it’s 59.2.

The temperature will be in the low 30s (C) but could feel almost 10 degrees higher when the Men in Blue and the Kings face off. The humidity is forecasted to be around 40%, which could reduce the amount of dew to form as the evening game progresses.