After loosing their respective last matches, Delhi Daredevils will be playing against Kings XI Punjab at Mohali.
Surprisingly with one of the strongest bowling line up and filled with young and talented batsman Delhi Daredevils is at the bottom of the table with 2 wins and 5 losses. Zaheer Khan’s captaincy has been remarkably different this season but yet to generate some positive results for the team. Giving more impetus to batting side, Daredevils has included Marlon Samuels as a replacement of Quinton de Kock.
Daredevils played last match against Knight Riders. Daredevils batting first got the decent start with Samson and Karun Nair quickly added 48 runs in just 29 balls and mostly by Samson. Nair who has been out of form from a long time got out scoring only 15 runs. Well he is one of the weak keys in the team who is letting down the team with his performances even after having tremendous amount of talent. Next came Shreyas Iyer and after missing first couple of matches due to illness, he has been performing really well as and when required. Iyer and Samson built up the partnership of 75 runs for the 2nd wicket. Samson seen again in his prime touch and scored 60 runs off 38 balls only. Iyer on the other hand shaping his inning and adding runs to the board. Next came Rishabh Pant, who showed some promising performances at the start of the season but failed miserably after than and the important push he gave has been missing from last few matches where mostly Delhi seemed to be struggling a bit more. Pant scored only 6 runs. Iyer who was moving towards his another fifty but Coulter Nile stopped him at 47 runs. By the Delhi Lost 4 wickets for 140 runs. Morris who has been known for clean and hard hitting could not add up much and got out scoring only 11 runs off 10 balls. Corey Anderson struggled infront of KKR’s bowling and got run out by the brilliant fielding by Jackson and Gambhir. Ankit Bawne who replaced Tare played 12 balls but unable to hit any big shots and scored run a ball. Daredevils posted only 160 runs even after getting the solid start but by the poor performance of middle order batsman in the last 4 overs. In response, KKR lost their temporary astonishing batman Narine and Rabada clean bowled him and gave his team the ideal start. Rabada was on fire and again he was almost succeeded in taking wicket of Uthappa but the confusion between Amit Mishra and Sanju Samson gave him a life and the ball fell in between both of them. Then there was no looking for Uthappa and he played smashing inning by scoring 59 runs off 33 balls. He got run out by Nair brilliant throw but it was too late for Delhi to make a comeback. Gautam Gambhir once again led from the from and hit amazing fifty. Though the match already gone out of hand but it was Rabada who clean bowled Manish Pandey with his super pace bowling. Lastly it was unbeaten inning of Gautam Gambhir who led the team to win by 7 wickets in hand. Rabada was the only one who took 2 wickets. Rest of the Delhi’s bowlers were wicketless.
Kings XI Punjab once again has started feeling the heat. Frequent changes and continuous losses has put them on a backfoot. With 3 wins and 5 losses, they are at the 6th position. Last match they played Sunrisers Hyderbad. Batting first Hyderabad put up a huge score of 207 on the board and it was again due to the top order batsman and one of the best openers in IPL. Dhawan and Warner gave Hyderabad the ideal start and scored 107 runs for 1st wicket partnership. Warner smashed 51 runs in just 27 balls and clean bowled by Maxwell. Next came Kane Williamson who struggled a bit at the start of his season to get a chance to play but once he got into the team he has cemented his place and continued doing in this inning too. Dhawan scored quick 77 runs in just 48 balls and picked up by Mohit Sharma. Punjab’s bowlers were getting beaten very very badly. Maxwell took the his 2nd wicket by picked up the wicket of Yuvraj Singh but it was unbeaten inning of Williamson which enabled Sunrisers to crossed 200 mark and gave the tough target to Punjab. Maxwell took 2 wickets followed by Mohit Sharma 1 wicket. Ishant Sharma who came in place of Sandeep Sharma proved to be very costly. Anureet Singh bowled the 2nd costliest spell of the match. In response, Punjab came up with new combination Guptill replaced Amla who was injured opened the inning with Vohra. Punjab lost its first wicket and it was Vohra who scored only 3 runs. Guptill as he is known for his hard hitting started well but could not convert it big and he lost his wicket to Bhuvneshwar scoring only 23 runs off 11 balls. Shaun Marsh and Maxwell were on the crease but before they started to rebuilt the innings Kaul took Maxwell at Zero. Morgan who came in place of Stoinis added 73 runs with Marsh for 4 wicket partnership and at once it seemed like this pair can chased down the target but it was Rashid Khan who played the role he is getting known for and picked up Morgan scoring 26 run off 21 balls. W. Saha continued his unusual and impulsive batting and got out scoring 2 runs only. His continuous failure has pushed him down the batting order but it seems he is yet to learn a lesson. Till the time Marsh was on the crease, the target looked to be chase-able but a continuous fall of the wickets on the other hand pushed him further to take more chances and eventually he got out scoring fantastic 84 runs off 50 balls. Axar Patel and Anureet Singh added 30-40 but it was the superb bowling by Nehra and Kaul who could not let the Punjab to score further and they lost by 26 runs.
Probable 11:
Delhi: R. Pant (wk), S. Samson, K. Nair, S. Iyer, C. Morris, C. Anderson, A. Bawne, P. Cummins, K. Rabada, A. Mishra, Z. Khan
Punjab: W. Shah (wk), M. Guptill, M. Vohra, S. Marsh,G. Maxwell, E. Morgan, A. Patel, A. Singh, M. Sharma, I. Sharma, K. Cariappa
Quick Stats:
Marlon Samuels has joined the DD’s camp on 29th April as a replacement of Quinton de Kock and if Delhi decides to include him in playing 11 for Sunday’s match then they have to choose either Cummins or Rabada. But Samuels has just joined so chances are less likely that Delhi will put him directly on the field.
Zaheer Khan had to leave the field in last match due to the pull in hamstring and if there is anything series then it might happen Shami will get a chance.
Corey Anderson did not perform in last two matches and Delhi may go for Mathews or Brathwaite
Amla is fit and but it will be a challenge for Punjab to whom he should be replaced with.
Sammy who was injured and out of the IPL for 1st 3 weeks is fit and ready to join the team but seeing the weak bowling side of Punjab it might happen Matt Henry get a chance to bolster the bowling attack. In both the case it will be Morgan who is more likely to make way for any one of them.
Sandeep Sharma most likely to join the team in place of A. Singh.
Ishant Sharma who again failed to perform may lost his place to Varun Aaron or T Natarajan
Stay tuned for all the latest updates till the match starts.
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