New Delhi, April 27 (IANS) Kyle Jamieson and Sahil Parakh have been handed debut caps by Delhi Capitals, who have also included Dushmantha Chameera, as Royal Challengers Bengaluru, unchanged from their previous match, won the toss and elected to bowl first in Match 39 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on Monday.
Defending champions RCB have five wins in seven games and are in second place on the points table. DC, meanwhile, need a win to keep themselves in good standing in the race to the playoffs after losing four of their last five games, which means they are in seventh spot.
After winning the toss, RCB captain Rajat Patidar said, “This venue is a high-scoring ground, it will not make much difference, we will try to put them under pressure in the second innings. The most important thing is that different players are coming up and delivering in different matches. We have played some good cricket and continue to carry that momentum. It is in the past; we are looking to play good cricket.”
DC skipper Axar Patel said Chameera, Jamieson, who previously played for RCB and Punjab Kings in the IPL, and Parakh, the teenage Maharashtra batter, come into the playing eleven in place of Pathum Nissanka, Mukesh Kumar, and Auqib Nabi Dar.
Fast bowler Lungi Ngidi, who had an unfortunate head injury while taking a catch against the Punjab Kings and was later discharged after being taken to the hospital, is not available for the game after not being spotted during the pre-game practice session.
“I would have fielded if I won the toss. The ground dimensions are small, the pitch also gets better, so we would have chased as well. In the IPL, you score 264 and lose, but it is a long tournament. We had a good game with bat and ball; if we had held our chances, then the result would be different.
“You need to keep continuing to do the work, even our best fielders drop catches, so luck is not on our side, but we cannot sit around thinking about it. We have to strike in the powerplay, though Mukesh has done well, he needs a break, and we are bringing in international bowlers,” he said.
Monday’s game will be played on pitch number five, where the Gujarat Titans made 210 earlier this season, and DC fell short by one run in a humdinger of a clash. In their pitch report, Danny Morrison and Eoin Morgan observed that with 63m square boundaries on either side, the pitch has a slightly drier look. They further reckoned it would be interesting to see if the ball spins and has some bite for the spinners.
Playing XIs:
Delhi Capitals: Sahil Parakh, KL Rahul (wk), Nitish Rana, Sameer Rizvi, Tristan Stubbs, David Miller, Axar Patel (captain), Dushmantha Chameera, Kuldeep Yadav, T Natarajan, Kyle Jamieson
Impact substitutes: Auqib Nabi, Ashutosh Sharma, Vipraj Nigam, Tripurana Vijay, Abishek Porel
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar (captain), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, Suyash Sharma, Rasikh Salam Dar
Impact substitutes: Jacob Bethell, Jordan Cox, Mangesh Yadav, Vicky Ostwal, Venkatesh Iyer
--IANS
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