Couple of notable changes in both camps. T Natarajan comes into the XI for the Capitals in place of Mukesh Kumar. SRH have opted to move Mohammed Shami to the impact subs list while also dropping Kamindu Mendis and Nitish Kumar Reddy. Abhinav Manohar and Sachin Baby move into the playing XI.

Delhi Capitals (Playing XI): Faf du Plessis, Abishek Porel, Karun Nair, KL Rahul(w), Axar Patel(c), Tristan Stubbs, Vipraj Nigam, Mitchell Starc, Dushmantha Chameera, Kuldeep Yadav, T Natarajan

Axar Patel: Would've fielded first as well, looks like a good wicket and it shouldn't change much. Will look to get a good score and restrict them. The last phase is here and these are must-win games. We've tried to keep the environment light, we weren't thinking about these things at the start of the tournament and we played well, want to go into these games with the same mindset and not let the situation pressure us. We've had different players contribute, we haven't been dependant on one player. We want to have close games, even if we lose, we don't want to lose by big margins. No changes.

Sunrisers Hyderabad have won the toss and have opted to field

Pat Cummins: We'll bowl. We've talked about a few things, haven't had a complete game yet. Want to do the basics well. It's about giving yourself the chance, everyone's a match-winner.

Sunrisers Hyderabad have won the toss and have opted to field

RajeshMK: I think they miss by a whisker, The only reason I am saying this because they have to face MI,GT and PBKS in a row. If they lose one moment they are done.

Aman Sharma: Its looks tough for Delhi in terms of qualifying for the play offs. Mumbai Indians has the edge with their better NRR. Delhi will have to win and win more convincingly than they have recently.

Siddhant Pandey: @Pranav S I disagree because DC has struggled to perform as a unit this season and has relied a lot on individual brilliance to win games. Powerplay bowling is their biggest concern right now and also the shaky batting lineup.

Pranav S: I think DC will make it to the playoffs this year solely due to their well rounded Playing XI , especially their spinners who are in form and their experienced yet explosive middle order

Ajit: Delhi Capitals have started showing lack of form which the top 4 are not showing. Going to be a difficult road ahead for them as they also have matches with top 4.

Matthew Mott | Assistant Coach, DC: It’s fresh ice for me, been head coach for 15 years now so it’s nice to be bit more of a coach. Being head coach is a lot about managing people, so I’m enjoying this hands-on approach more. We’ve had a couple of days off to reflect. Looking at a reset button now, we got off to a flier and expectations went up. Want to try and treat each game in isolation. Going to be a massive crowd tonight. Hopefully we can keep them quiet with a good performance. It’s a must-win game for us, we know it, every game from here on is like a semi-final. We’ve got a lot of players with experience. We’re revved up, had a lot of good chats. We’ve looked at the areas in which we’ve come up short and hopefully addressed that. It’s an exciting day for us. Not a lot of money that’s for sure. He’s been amazing, sending messages all the time. It;s killing him that he’s not here. He brings in a wealth of experience from a lot of different environments. He’s able to reflect on his own career and bring a lot of perspectives.

The race for the playoffs is heating up. Do you think the Delhi Capitals will make it? Let us know why they will or they won't using the Have Your Say feature available on the desktop website.

Pitch report: "The longest boundary is downtown at 76m and 66m square boundaries either side. It looks really nice, red soil pitch and that means there's a little pace and bounce in it. It can also turn a bit. There is no grass cover at all, it's dry but also nice and hard which means it'll go through nicely. So far on this pitch, SRH scored 190 and LSG chased it down inside 16 overs. The wicket will play nicely, it won't turn that much. Average score has been in excess of 200 on this pitch. Expect there to be a lot of runs. SRH have won only 2 out of 5 games here in Hyderabad" say WV Raman and Shane Watson.

18:30 Local Time, 13:00 GMT, 18:30 IST: A season that began full of promise has gone a little pear-shaped for the Delhi Capitals as they’ve lost three of their last four games including a 14-run loss to the resurgent Kolkata Knight Riders in their last game. While that game marked Faf du Plessis’ return to form, it saw the Capitals botch what looked like a relatively straightforward chase after getting into a position of strength. While it’s probably a little too early to raise the alarm as the Capitals sit fifth on the table, they’ll be cognizant of the fact that they can’t sustain any further blemishes like that. In a bid to rekindle their campaign, they’ll have to go past a Sunrisers Hyderabad side that are hanging on by a thread. Sitting at ninth place on the table, the Pat Cummins-led side have but a glimmer of hope of finishing in the top four. A heavy 38-run defeat to the Gujarat Titans in their previous fixture did them no favours to that end. Banking on an engine whose cylinders have thus far been out of sync and failed to fire collectively, the Sunrisers will hope that something clicks this time around.

Preview

On the brink of elimination, Sunrisers Hyderabad return home on Monday (May 5) to face off against the stuttering Delhi Capitals in a bid to give their IPL 2025 campaign one more push.

The Capitals find themselves just outside the qualification bracket with 12 points in 10 games. They have struggled to keep up the momentum gained following a record-breaking start to their season as soon as they hit the home turf. After winning five out of their first six games, Delhi's campaign lost steam midway as they went on to lose three of their last four. With only four games in hand, and the remaining three post Monday against sides all currently placed above them in the points table, the road is only going to get tougher for Axar & Co. at the business end of the competition.

In all their recent defeats, the batting hasn't collectively fired for Delhi despite different individuals putting their hand up in each of those innings. Incidentally, all their remaining games are at high-scoring venues, putting the onus on the batting department to pull up their socks and put in complete performances to help DC secure a playoffs berth. While KL Rahul has shouldered the responsbility well, and is the team's leading run-getter, the return of Faf du Plessis with a half-century in the most-recent outing are good signs for Delhi.

However, Axar Patel the batter has been a revelation for the side. Promoted as captain after the mega auction, Axar has more often than not played the matchups right by promoting himself in the batting order when needed and chipped in with impact knocks. He's also led the team admirably with the ball despite not bagging a whole lot of wickets which he put down to pre-tournament injury. As such, him injuring his bowling hand again in the last outing would have Delhi sweating over his match-fitness. He did play a handy cameo in a losing cause in the chase thereafter, signalling it may not have been a serious concern, and a five-day break for Delhi since should have aided in recovery.

SRH's campaign quickly went off rails despite them retaining the experienced core of the Class of '24 that ended second-best to KKR. When this time last year they held a position firmly in the top-four, Hyderabad have struggled to even get off the bottom half this season with only one win in first-five games, and two in their last five outings. With six points against their name and four games in hand, SRH stay alive mathematically - needing other results to fall their way even if they were to go on a winning-spree from here on.

When: Monday, May 5 at 7:30 PM IST

Where: Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad

What to expect: The venue has a tendency to favour the batters. Four of five games here previously in IPL 2025 have been won by chasing sides, and while SRH only has a 2-3 win-loss record at home they do have the distinction of being the only team to successfully defend a total here. Expect clear skies and no interference from rain otherwise.

Head-to-Head: SRH 13 - 12 DC. In six games in Hyderabad, the two teams have beaten each other thrice.

Teams Watch

Sunrisers Hyderabad

Injuries/ Unavailability: No reported news of injury for the hosts

Tactics & Match-ups: Abhishek Sharma has been one of SRH's better batters in a vastly inconsistent season for the 2024 finalists. He has a strong record against DC's best - Kuldeep Yadav [13 balls | 38 runs | 2 dismissals].

Probable XII: Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Aniket Verma, Kamindu Mendis, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Pat Cummins (C), Harshal Patel, Jaydev Unadkat, Zeeshan Ansari, Mohammed Shami

Delhi Capitals

Injuries/Unavailability: Axar injured his left hand on the field in DC's last game, against KKR at Delhi, but did return to bat in the chase. Besides that, there are no availability concerns in Delhi's camp.

Tactics & Match-ups: Mitchell Starc has dismissed Travis Head twice in seven balls in the IPL, and will be vital to rattle SRH early in Hyderabad.

Probable XII: Faf du Plessis, Abishek Porel (wk), Karun Nair, KL Rahul (wk), Axar Patel (C), Tristan Stubbs, Vipraj Nigam, Mitchell Starc, Kuldeep Yadav, Dushmantha Chameera, Mukesh Kumar, Ashutosh Sharma

Did you know?

- Travis Head had a strike rate of 191.55 in the first three games of the season. That has dropped significantly to 133 in the next seven games

- Mitchell Starc has picked 10 wickets in 4 outings against SRH in IPL since 2024

What they said

"We have had a bit of a break just to go back, have a reset, have a think about it. We have had a few days off. So we have had time as a team to reset and go back to the things that we were doing well. And it's about peaking at the right time, no? And this is the perfect time to start and the last four games to go." - Karun Nair

"I think they're incredibly important for not only the franchise but for individuals as well. I think whatever's going on, there's always a desire to finish the season well and we understand that finishing the season well can give a lot of optimism to the franchise going forward." - SRH head coach Daniel Vettori

Squads:

Delhi Capitals Squad: Abishek Porel(w), Faf du Plessis, Karun Nair, KL Rahul, Axar Patel(c), Tristan Stubbs, Vipraj Nigam, Ashutosh Sharma, Mitchell Starc, Dushmantha Chameera, Kuldeep Yadav, Mukesh Kumar, Sameer Rizvi, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Tripurana Vijay, Donovan Ferreira, Mohit Sharma, Madhav Tiwari, Darshan Nalkande, Ajay Jadav Mandal, Manvanth Kumar L, T Natarajan

Sunrisers Hyderabad Squad: Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Heinrich Klaasen(w), Aniket Verma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Kamindu Mendis, Pat Cummins(c), Harshal Patel, Jaydev Unadkat, Zeeshan Ansari, Mohammed Shami, Abhinav Manohar, Sachin Baby, Rahul Chahar, Wiaan Mulder, Atharva Taide, Simarjeet Singh, Smaran Ravichandran, Eshan Malinga