IPL 2025: Both teams unchanged as RR elect to field first against DC

New Delhi, April 16 (IANS) Both Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Capitals are fielding unchanged sides as visitors’ skipper Sanju Samson won the toss and elected to bowl first in Match 32 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium here on Wednesday. DC are looking to bounce back after suffering a 12-run heartbreaking defeat against Mumbai Indians (MI) on their return to their home venue on Sunday, which also snapped their unbeaten winning streak in the competition.

RR, on the other hand, are coming after suffering a nine-wicket thrashing at the hands of Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in Jaipur. Since IPL 2024, teams batting first have emerged victorious in New Delhi. After winning the toss, Samson said, “Looks like a good wicket. Gets better in the second half. The results and match conditions have been different.”

“But we are still early in the tournament, so we want to bowl first and get an advantage. It is a competitive league, so we need to look past results sometimes. We decided as a team that we need to put in a good performance, whatever happens,” he said.

DC captain Axar Patel said they would also have looked to bowl first, mainly due to the dew factor, and said the side would guard against complacency with the bat after a middle-order meltdown against MI. A win for second-placed DC over eighth-ranked RR will help them reclaim the top spot in the points table.

“Now we are ready to bat first and put up a big score. Last game, we also did well chasing, just a matter of a couple of overs here and there going in our favour. Need to look past the last game, but it is a learning experience. We discussed in the team meetings how we could have finished the game; we perhaps got too casual in the middle phase,” he said.

The square boundary dimensions for Wednesday’s match are 61m and 62m respectively, with the straight-down-the-ground boundary standing at 72m when the bowler is coming to bowl from the Willingdon end. In the pitch report, Shane Watson reckoned there will be a little bit of grip for the spinners and pacers, especially if they use change-up deliveries.

Playing XIs:

Delhi Capitals: Jake Fraser-McGurk, Abishek Porel, Karun Nair, KL Rahul (wk), Axar Patel (capt), Tristan Stubbs, Ashutosh Sharma, Vipraj Nigam, Mitchell Starc, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohit Sharma

Impact Substitutes: Mukesh Kumar, Sameer Rizvi, Darshan Nalkande, Donovan Ferreira, Tripurana Vijay

Rajasthan Royals: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson (capt & wk), Nitish Rana, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Wanindu Hasaranga, Jofra Archer, Maheesh Theekshana, Sandeep Sharma, Tushar Deshpande

Impact Substitutes: Shubham Dubey, Yudhvir Singh, Kumar Kartikeya, Akash Madhwal, Kunal Singh Rathore

--IANS

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