Capitals look to continue winning momentum; Gill set to return for Titans

As an upbeat Delhi Capitals host secondlast placed Gujarat Titans at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Wednesday their bowling coach Munaf Patel wants his team to go for more wickets in the Powerplay DC have bagged two out of two wins so far in this IPL while GT have lost both their gamesSkipper Shubman Gillrsquos return though should lift GTrsquos spirits He had missed the previous match against Rajasthan Royals April 4 due to a muscle spasm but is now fit and had a full net session on TuesdayGT opener Sai Sudharsan expressed confidence in his teamrsquos middleorder to help the team bounce back ldquoItrsquos a mixture of bothhellip as opening batters and top three batters if someone plays longer itrsquos always a great thing for the team We believe in our middle order they will come good This is the same team that qualified for the playoffs last year Itrsquos just two games and the whole team believes that we will definitely have a great middle order and win games We look back at the two games and have learnt a lot for sure We will look forward to getting our first win and carry that momentum forwardrdquo Sudharsan who has scored 86 runs in two games so far and was the leading rungetter in IPL 2025 said at the matcheve press conferenceDCrsquos Sameer Rizvi during his 90 against MI in New Delhi recentlyDC bowling coach Munaf explained how early wickets help ldquoIf you take wickets in the first six overs then you donrsquot have the opposition getting to 200 because if yoursquore scoring under 4042 itrsquos very difficult to go above 200 unless the bowling is very bad in the last six oversrdquoWhile DCrsquos confidence is up there is a bit of worry with their top order KL Rahul has failed to take off in both previous matches as has Nitish Rana Opener Pathum Nissanka did score runs in the second match but itrsquos been Sameer Rizvi who has come in as Impact Player and done well He scored 70 not out in the first match against LSG and 90 against MI in the second match Patel said that Rizvi will continue to be Impact Sub ldquoMy opinion is that itrsquos easy for us to use the Impact Player I donrsquot believe that you should change a winning teamrdquo he saidRain has been forecast across the next two days in the capital though and sporadic showers may affect the game2No of consecutive wins for Gujarat Titans over Delhi Capitals Why DC have two wins from two gamesTight bowling performances In both their games DC had easier targets to chase after they restricted their opponents to modest totals LSG to 141 MI to 162 due to good contributions from all bowlersResilient batting Even though DC lost early wickets in both run chases 264 vs LSG and 72 vs MI they bounced back in the middle stage to get over the line due to their middle order standing up when it mattered mostSolid Impact Player Sameer Rizvi helping DC find the necessary firepower after losing early wickets in both matches His twin fifties 70 not out vs LSG and 90 vs MI earned him two ManoftheMatch awardsWhy GT have zero wins from two gamesNot enough powerhitting The GT middle order couldnrsquot get past a strikerate of 150 vs PBKS leaving them at 1626 Against RR every batter except Sai Sudharsan 73 off 44 was out under 30Poor finishing The GT batters struggled to get the finishing touches vs RR as they failed to get 11 off the last over by RR pacer Tushar Against PBKS the last five overs of GTrsquos batting only accounted for just 34 runsBowling woes After posting a 163run target GT failed to dismiss PBKSrsquos Cooper Connolly 73 Kagiso Rabada economy was 1133 and Ashok Sharma 1033 Against RR GT bowlers gave away as many as 210 runs