IPL 2023: Delhi Capitals Anrich Nortje returns home owing to personal emergency, to miss RCB clash

Delhi Capitals fast bowler Anrich Nortje left for South Africa late Friday night owing to a personal emergency and will miss Saturday’s home clash against Royal Challengers Bangalore, the franchise’s official statement says. In IPL 2023, protean seamer picked seven wickets from eight matches played and was instrumental in helping DC win their previous encounter against defending champions Gujarat Titans by five runs.

DC’s official statement read, “Owing to a personal emergency, Delhi Capitals fast bowler Anrich Nortje had to leave for South Africa late on Friday night. He will be unavailable for this evening’s game against Royal Challengers Bangalore.”

Though Nortje went for runs in his final over, getting hit for three consecutive sixes off Rahul Tewatia, it was his spell with the new ball that held GT’s momentum in a moderate chase. He picked up the man-in-form Shubman Gill inside the Powerplay on six. Even in the earlier games, Nortje was effective with the new ball, dismantling openers on any given surface.

Considering the important tie against RCB at home tonight, Delhi would miss his services as they are also without Bangladesh’s seamer Mustafizur Rahman. Since Ishant Sharma and Khaleel Ahmed are taking care of the proceedings early on, David Warner might play another seamer in either Mukesh Kumar – who has picked five wickets in seven matches, or another left-armer, Chetan Sakariya – who so far played just one game, bagging two wickets.

DC face RCB at home tonight

Delhi got off to a worse possible start in IPL 2023, losing five matches on the trot. However, they turned fortunes with three wins from the past four matches. The same is with RCB, who also found success in their recent matches.

While for DC to stay in contention for the playoffs race, they need to win their remaining five matches, and then, with other teams also delivering at the same time, they have to rely on some permutations and combinations going forward.

Delhi’s batting has struggled big time with none of their top order players, barring David Warner, delivering with the bat. All-rounder Axar Patel is another name who has done well with both bat and ball so far. For DC to eye for a place in the knockouts, they will need other players to step up also.

Here are the predicted XIs of both teams –

DC -David Warner (C), Philip Salt (wk), Mitch Marsh, Manish Pandey, Priyam Garg, Axar Patel, Ripal Patel, Aman Hakim Khan, Kuldeep Yadav, Mukesh Kumar and Ishant Sharma

RCB -Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis (C), Anuj Rawat, Glenn Maxwell, Suyash Prabhudessai, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Kedar Jadhav, Wanindu Hasaranga, Karn Sharma, Mohammed Siraj, Josh Hazlewood