IPL 2026: Axar Patel wins toss in 100th DC match, opts to bowl vs SRH; Nitish Rana back in XI

Delhi Capitals captain Axar Patel marked a special milestone by winning the toss in his 100th match for the franchise and choosing to field against Sunrisers Hyderabad.

On a landmark evening, Axar admitted the moment held significance but kept the focus on getting the job done. “We will bowl first. Luck is going well (on the toss); winning all matches would have been better. Thank you, I didn't think I would play 100 matches for DC. Hopefully, it'll end up with a win tonight,” he said at the toss.

He also shed light on the challenges of team combination and selection in a competitive squad. “Obviously, to balance the team you need to understand how to balance your playing eleven in cricket, what kind of wicket you are getting, so according to the situation you balance the team. And obviously, when you have such a big squad, it becomes difficult to manage everyone, but at the same time you tell them that whatever contribution you make, you should think that you are doing it for the team. Whoever is sitting out, and whoever we select, we select the best eleven for the team. And in this way, the players also understand how the cricket game works — we can only play eleven players.”

Delhi made one change for the contest, with Nitish Rana coming into the XI in place of Aquib Nabi.

Meanwhile, SRH skipper Ishan Kishan admitted uncertainty around the surface but backed his bowlers to execute their plans. “It's hard to decide right now because I don't think this is a similar kind of wicket which we played on for the previous two matches. But yeah, it all depends on how it plays and how we, you know, go ahead about it. We have a few changes. they have been doing well. It's more about—not about the results—but about execution and their headspace. They have been in a good mindset, coming up with plans like I said earlier, and you know, that is what any captain wants from their young bowlers. So we'll take one match at a time, and I think they'll keep on executing the plans.”

Teams:

Delhi Capitals (Playing XI): Pathum Nissanka, KL Rahul(w), Sameer Rizvi, Nitish Rana, Tristan Stubbs, Axar Patel(c), David Miller, Kuldeep Yadav, Mukesh Kumar, T Natarajan, Lungi Ngidi

Sunrisers Hyderabad (Playing XI): Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan(c), Heinrich Klaasen, Salil Arora(w), Aniket Verma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shivang Kumar, Harsh Dubey, Sakib Hussain, Eshan Malinga

Coming into the game, Delhi sit fifth on the points table with three wins from five matches and a net run rate of +0.310, while Hyderabad are fourth with three wins in six games and a superior net run rate of +0.566.