Following an impressive six-wicket win in the previous outing against host Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) by six wickets in their sixth match of the TATA IPL 2024 last week, the JSW and GMR co-owned franchise Delhi Capitals will look to keep the momentum going when they take on former champions Gujarat Titans in their next match of the IPL 2024 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Wednesday. 

Returning to the side after recovering from a niggle, left arm chinaman Kuldeep Yadav registered brilliant figures of 3/20 to help Delhi Capitals restrict the hosts to 167 for 7 in 20 overs  after a counterattacking unbeaten fifty from Ayush Badoni batting at no. 7, His twin strikes off consecutive balls in the eighth over of the innings off included hard hitting batters Marcus Stoinis (8) and Nicholas Pooran (0), before having rival skipper KL Rahul back caught behind by his captain Rishabh Pant to reduce LSG to 77 for 7 in 9.3 overs to bag the Player of the Match award later.

DC debutant Jake Fraser-McGurk however stole the show with a remarkable knock of 55 off 35 balls. Coming at the fall of his Australian team mate David Warner in the fourth over, Jake, who struck five sixes in hat-trick of them off experienced left arm spinner Krunal Pandya and two fours during his innings. He was also involved in two crucial partnership with opener Prithvi Shaw (39 of 21 balls) and Pant (77 off 46 balls) for the second and third wicket to lay the foundation for the run chase, before his team mates Shai Hope and Tristan Stubbs (24 off 16 balls) saw DC home comfortably in 18.1 overs.

Addressing the media in a pre-match press conference, Delhi Capitals' Head Coach Ricky Ponting explained the team's approach for the game against the Gujarat Giants. He said, "We will structure our batting order tomorrow to make sure that we've got the right batsmen against their spinners in those crucial middle overs of the game. The batsmen are well aware of the skill set that they'll need tomorrow to take on this Gujarat side. We are just looking forward to the contest."

"Opener David (Warner) did have an X-ray after the last game. That X-ray came back all clear. But, he's got a lot of swelling around the knuckle on his left hand.  We'll give him a fitness test tomorrow morning, and keep our fingers crossed that he's okay," he added while giving an update on his Australian counterpart and DC’s key member fitness. 

Talking about the team's campaign so far, Ponting said, "The overriding message from me to the players over the last six games (two wins and four losses, placed ninth in the pool table)) is how close we've been. We could easily be sitting here with five wins and one loss. So, we understand how close we are and how close the tournament is, but you can't afford to be close to be good in the IPL. You've got to turn up and be very good every day."

"We know we've got to get better in certain areas of our cricket. And trust me, we're working really hard every day to make sure that we're as well prepared as we can be," he concluded.