IPL 9, Match 33 Preview: Confident Daredevils take on struggling Supergiants at Kotla

The extremely confident Delhi Daredevils return to their home ground and have a struggling and injury-hampered Rising Pune Supergiants in their firing line up next in the IPL 2016. Injuries to key players such as Steve Smith, Kevin Pietersen, Mitchell Marsh and Faf du Plessis have completely disturbed Pune’s composition and the new entrants are now starring down the barrel with only two wins from eight games so far. The Delhi outfit has played some smart and entertaining cricket to claim the number 2 points in the points table.

Delhi Daredevils:

DD have become a formidable team, thanks to a brilliant team effort under the guidance of Rahul Dravid. After years of struggles, Daredevils’ turnaround this season is a perfect example of how a side should be managed. The seniors are taking more responsibilities and the youngsters are being given freedom to play their natural game and express themselves on the field. The biggest plus in the team in the last two games has been the performance of their skipper Zaheer Khan. Zak has opened the bowling, and he has managed to get early breakthroughs; he has been impressive in the death overs, too.

Carlos Brathwaite had returned against Kolkata Knight Riders and made an impact straightaway. He scored 34 off 11 and then took three wickets to be the Man of the Match. But the West Indian was not played in the game against Gujarat Lions last night. Given the nature of the Feroz Shah Kotla track, it is possible that Brathwaite comes back in place of Sam Billings. Shahbaz Nadeem was impressive last night when he removed two top-order Lions batsmen and might continue featuring in the starting lineup. The form of openers Quinton de Kock and Rishabh Pant is an encouraging sign for the team and the two will want to continue it. Sanju Samson, though, needs to fire. Except for one match, he has not shown his true potential.

Rising Pune Supergiants:

Pune Supergiants have struggled to defend. Even the score in the vicinity of 200 could not be saved. The bowlers have let the side down, but MS Dhoni hardly has options. If the side is to move up from its current sixth position, they will have to come up with some inspiring performances. Left with six more matches, the task is only getting tougher with each passing day for the team. Australia’s George Bailey has been roped in as a replacement for an increasing list of casualties. Usman Khawaja had come in earlier for the new IPL outfit and Bailey becomes the second new joinee.

Australia’s Steve Smith became the latest international star from the team to be ruled out of the tournament due to an injury and this has been a cruel blow for Pune. Smith, who on Friday night registered his maiden T20 hundred, has been a key man for RPS in their first season, scoring 270 runs at an average of 45. Following Mitchell Marsh’s exit, Supergiants took on Mumbai Indians on Sunday night and were once again outclassed with Mumbai Indians’ skipper Rohit Sharma leading from the front in the easy eight-wicket win. RPS can ill-afford such ordinary displays if they are to have any hopes of progressing to the next stage in the competition.

Probable XI:

Delhi Daredevils:

Quinton de Kock (wk), Rishabh Pant, Sanju Samson, JP Duminy, Karun Nair, Carlos Brathwaite, Amit Mishra, Mohammed Shami, Chris Morris, Shahbaz Nadeem, Zaheer Khan (C).

Rising Pune Supergiants:  

Ajinkya Rahane, Usman Khwaja, George Bailey, Saurabh Tiwary, MS Dhoni (wk/C), Thisara Perera, Rajat Bhatia, Murugan Ashwin, Ravichandran Ashwin, Scott Boland, Ashok Dinda

StAttack:

1. Ajinkya Rahane needs 20 more runs to complete 300 runs in this year’s IPL.

2. Amit Mishra is the leading wicket-taker for Delhi Daredevils this year with 9 wickets from 7 matches. He is also their all-time leading wicket-taker in IPL with 60 wickets from 50 matches.