Raipur : Faced with a do-or-die situation, the inconsistent Delhi Daredevils will take on table-toppers Sunrisers Hyderabad in their penultimate Indian Premier League match here today.
The Daredevils have failed to build a consistent winning winning momentum throughout the league and they are coming into this match with back-to-back defeats.
With 12 points from 12 games, they need to win Friday’s match against a confident Sunrisers at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium. A loss will knock the Daredevils out of contention for a play-offs berth.
The Sunrisers, on the other hand, are virtually through to the play-offs and they are on top of the table with 16 points from 12 games.
Despite being assured of a place in the play-offs, the Sunrisers would look to continue their impressive form as the league reaches its business end.
Daredevils’ hopes for a play-offs berth suffered a huge jolt in their previous match when they lost to laggards Rising Pune Supergiants by 19 runs via the D/L method.
Their batting came a cropper in that match with only Karun Nair and Chris Morris making substantial contributions of 41 and 38 respectively.
Quinton de Kock has been the most consistent Daredevils batsman but he has not got a stable partner at the top.
Domestic players like Mayank Agarwal, Shreyas Iyer, Karun Nair, Sanju Samson, Rishab Pant and Pawan Negi have been inconsistent and that has hit the Daredevils batting badly.
Senior batman J P Duminy has not contributed much for the team with the bat and his sketchy form has affected the Daredevils rhythm.
Sunrisers have been the most consistent team in the tournament and except for the two consecutive defeats in the opening two matches, they have not lost back-to-back games in the league.
Their batting has been revolving around captain David Warner and his opening partner Shikhar Dhawan. Yuvraj Singh has also chipped in well so far after coming back from his injury lay-off.
Warner has been leading from the front and Dhawan has also come good after an indifferent start to the tournament.
In the bowling department, veteran Ashish Nehra and Bangladeshi pacer Mustafizur Rahman have been in top form to make it easy for the Sunrisers while the likes of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Barinder Sran have been chipping in with decent performances.
Daredevils though have reason to be a bit upbeat as they had beaten Sunrisers in the first leg in Hyderabad and they would look to win their final two league matches at their ‘home’ ground here.
Delhi Daredevils: Zaheer Khan (Captain), Quinton de Kock, Jean-Paul Duminy, Mayank Agarwal, Amit Mishra, Sanju Samson, Mohammed Shami, Chris Morris, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Imran Tahir, Shreyas Iyer, Karun Nair, Pawan Negi, Rishabh Pant, Sam Billings, Carlos Brathwaite, Khaleel Ahmed, Akhil Herwadkar, Mahipal Lomror, Chama Milind, Shahbaz Nadeem, Pratyush Singh, Pawan Suyal, Jayant Yadav.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner (Captain), Ben Cutting, Shikhar Dhawan, Moises Henriques, Kane Williamson, Yuvraj Singh, Eoin Morgan, Mustafizur Rahman, Ashish Nehra, Naman Ojha, Deepak Hooda, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Barinder Sran, Karn Sharma, Siddarth Kaul, Abhimanyu Mithun, Vijay Shankar, Tirumalasetti Suman, Aditya Tare, Ashish Reddy, Ricky Bhui, Bipul Sharma, Trent Boult.
