What

The IPL will reach a special milestone when the Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Daredevils meet in Match 36 of Pepsi IPL 2015. The match will be the 500th match in the Indian Premier League.

The two teams have had contrasting fortunes so far this season. RR started their campaign with a bang, winning five in a row, but haven’t tasted any success in their last five outings – two of which were washed out by poor weather. In their most recent outing against Mumbai Indians, they made a good fight of their chase of 188 – courtesy Sanju Samson’s career-best score, before letting the match slip of their clutches. The 2008 champions are sitting pretty in the top half of the table with 12 points from ten matches, and the pressure will be on them to not only seal a Playoff spot quickly, but also ensure a finish in the top two places.

Delhi Daredevils have blown hot and cold at various times this season. They have four wins from eight matches and are among the several teams in the mid-table race. JP Duminy’s boys played their best cricket in a long time in their previous match against Kings XI Punjab; they first restricted KXIP to a modest 118 and then chased down the runs without breaking a sweat. The addition of Zaheer Khan has certainly added plenty of sting to the bowling attack; apart from his four overs being crucial, his presence on the field also helps the other bowlers plan and execute better.

When

03 May 2015, 8p.m. IST

Where

Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai

The Protagonists

Though Rajasthan Royals discovered a new performer in Sanju Samson in their previous match, the team relies heavily on their opening pair of Ajinkya Rahane and Shane Watson, and on Steve Smith to score the bulk of the runs.

Delhi Daredevils rode on the performance of their two youngsters Shreyas Iyer and Mayank Agarwal in their previous match against Kings XI Punjab. However, the impact batsmen in the team are their captain JP Duminy and Yuvraj Singh. On the bowling front, DD will look towards their new-ball pair of Nathan Coulter-Nile and Zaheer Khan to give them early breakthroughs before the leg-spinner pair of Imran Tahir and Amit Mishra can take over and do their bit in the middle overs.

Contests to look forward to

The battle between Ajinkya Rahane, Shane Watson and Steve Smith against the Delhi Daredevils leg-spinners promises to be interesting. Each of the three RR batsmen play spin bowling differently: Rahane reaches out to the pitch of the ball and drives with the spin, Watson generally muscles the ball through the leg-side, while Smith is a cheeky customer who uses nimble footwork and indulges in mind games with the bowlers. How the two leg-spinners come up against the RR top three will make for interesting viewing.

Previous Meetings

The Rajasthan Royals have won nine of their 15 matches against the Delhi Daredevils.

When the two teams met in Delhi earlier this season, the hosts piled up 184 runs on the board and appeared to have the match in their grasp at the end of 12 overs when RR were reduced to 85 for 4 and needed a further 100 runs from the final eight overs. That is when 19-year old Deepak Hooda took charge, scored a match-winning 54 from 25 balls (studded with three fours and four sixes) and took his team to an unlikely victory.

Trivia

The Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai has hosted eight IPL matches previously. The Mumbai Indians played their seven home matches at the venue in the 2010 season, while the Eliminator match between MI and Chennai Super Kings in the 2014 season too was played at the venue.

The last time Delhi Daredevils won four (or more) matches in a particular IPL season was in 2012, when they won eleven matches out of the 16 league matches and finished the group stages at the top of the table. In 2013, DD won only three of 16 matches, while in 2014 they won only two matches.

What Next

Both teams will remain in Mumbai after this match. While Rajasthan Royals will play host to Sunrisers Hyderabad on May 7, Delhi Daredevils will take the field next at the Wankhede Stadium, when they clash with the Mumbai Indians on May 5.