Fast bowling an Achilles heel for Kings XI against Capitals
Their pace attack's economy is the second-worst this season and Delhi's dynamic batting won't make it easy
The Preview by Sreshth Shah
31-Mar-2019
Big picture
Kings XI Punjab should've won all three so far. They've beaten two sides comprehensively, but have themselves (and Andre Russell) to blame for losing the other. But they like playing in Mohali, where their batsmen can trust the surface and their spinners have the ability to make full use of the wide-square boundaries. They'll now chase their sixth-straight win at home.
But they've been on this kind of high before. Last season, they won five of their first six games before their campaign came to a grinding halt. R Ashwin wants them to approach the tournament like a marathon. What that means in terms of their team combination is yet to be seen.
Delhi will be boosted by their scrappy Super Over win against Knight Riders, though. Fine, it's the kind of win that gives you an unparalleled rush but it also allows you to reflect on the weaknesses. They need to bowl smarter after reducing their opponents to scores like 61 for 5 and the team is not yet sure of their best XI.
Their enviable Indian top-order, though, matches each Kings XI batsman player for player, so it's likely that the contest will be decided by which team bowls better on a surface with the second-highest strike-rate for batsmen since IPL 2017.
Likely XIs
Kings XI Punjab: 1 Chris Gayle, 2 KL Rahul (wk), 3 Mayank Agarwal, 4 David Miller, 5 Sarfaraz Khan, 6 Mandeep Singh, 7 R Ashwin (capt), 8 Mujeeb-Ur-Rahman, 9 M Ashwin, 10 Ankit Rajpoot/Mohammed Shami 11 Andrew Tye
Delhi Capitals: 1 Prithvi Shaw, 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Shreyas Iyer (capt), 4 Colin Ingram, 5 Rishabh Pant (wk), 6 Hanuma Vihari, 7 Chris Morris, 8 Harshal Patel, 9 Amit Mishra/Axar Patel, 10 Sandeep Lamichhane, 11 Kagiso Rabada
Strategy Punt
Stats that matter
Sreshth Shah is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo