It has been a contrasting start for the two teams which play on Thursday. Delhi Daredevils takes on Deccan Chargers in the afternoon game and while the former has recorded three victories in its four games, the latter has yet to notch up its first.
While Chargers' coach Darren Lehman will be scratching his head in disbelief, two of their three defeats have come in the final over. Rohit Sharma played a gem of an innings to lead Mumbai Indians to win in Deccan's second game while Brad Hodge led the way to a smashing Rajasthan victory in the last match.
It was more of the opposition snatching victory from the jaws of defeat than the Chargers allowing them to do so — how else can you explain a bowler of the calibre of Dale Steyn going for as much as he did against Rajasthan Royals? Purely brilliant batting on a pitch tailor-made for this format of the game.
Delhi Daredevils has been obviously the revelation of the tournament, banking on its plethora of pace bowling options. Morne Morkel is a class act, but unlike some of the other sides he has enough back-up in the form of the young, rising talent of Umesh Yadav and the swing and subtle variations of Irfan Pathan.
I quite liked the way Shahbaz Nadeem bowled against Mumbai Indians, ostensibly brought on to open the bowling attack to test Mumbai Indians' two relatively inexperienced openers from overseas.
The tactic worked wonders and before the late-comers had even occupied their seats, Daredevils had their opponents two down.
What the Daredevils will now hope is for their batsmen to get used to the pitch at Kotla, which I believe could play a tad slower than some of the others in the country.
CSK's chance
In the other game of the evening, Chennai Super Kings has the chance to avenge its defeat against Pune Warriors in its previous game. Jesse Ryder was superb in that game while Steve Smith brought the team home with his spanking cameo at the end.
Smith is a much improved cricketer and I wouldn't be surprised if he has done a lot of work on his batting. He hasn't bowled too much in the tournament so far, but his fielding has been a standout and that makes him a very valuable player to have in the eleven.
Chennai Super Kings has been rather sluggish to get away and can hardly afford to lose another one on its home ground. It found it difficult to get away from Pune Warriors in its previous game with the bat and then ran into a determined Ryder and superb Smith.
My guess is that Doug Bollinger could get another chance to play while the batting at the top of the innings may see a change. Of course, M.S. Dhoni is that sort of a captain who can upset all predictions and back all those who are not performing!
Keywords: IPL V
