The eighth edition of the Indian Premier League is close to the half-way mark but Delhi Daredevils and Royal Challengers Bangalore are yet to shake off their inconsistency.
Both teams have suffered three losses each. Delhi has three wins — one more than Bangalore that has played a game less. There is much to play for the teams on Sunday at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground.
Interestingly, the teams will face-off after encouraging victories in their last outings. But Bangalore’s all-round display that led to the demolition of table-topper Rajasthan Royals on Friday was more impressive than Delhi’s triumph over bottom-scraper Mumbai Indians.
Virat Kohli’s decision to promote AB de Villiers to the No. 3 spot against Rajasthan paid rich dividends. Given the fact that Virat chose to open with a back-again Chris Gayle, it was clear that the skipper had risked exposing a not-so-intimidating middle-order batting had the top-three batsmen fallen early.
The highly versatile de Villiers appeared to be under-utilised down the order in the previous outings. With Gayle showing signs of getting back his feared form and Virat getting two successive half centuries, Bangalore is optimistic about its prospects.
Unlike Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who prefers to have four bowlers in the playing XI, Virat has made no secret of his liking to have a five-man attack. Mitchell Starc, David Wiese, Harshal Patel along with spinners Yuzvendra Chahal and Iqbal Abdulla combined to keep Rajasthan in check.
Sarfaraz Khan, at 17 the youngest to play in this season’s competition, could find his place in danger in the middle-order that includes Dinesh Karthik, Mandeep Singh and Manvinder Bisla.
Delhi, too, prefers specialist slower bowlers like leg-spinners Imran Tahir and Amit Mishra in the playing XI.
In the last game, even left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem was included. Here, it must also be remembered that skipper J-P Duminy showed his worth as a spinner against the Sunrisers last week.
Though paceman Nathan Coulter-Nile has done a fair job, Angelo Mathews appears to be struggling. Somehow, Delhi appears to have under-utilized the Sri Lankan as a bowler.
Delhi’s assistant coach Pravin Amre had mentioned Zaheer Khan could play on Sunday.
Should the left-armer make it to the playing XI, Bangalore could be tested more.
In the batting department, Delhi has reasons to be worried over opener Mayank Agarwal’s inconsistency.
That enhances the possibility of C.M. Gautam regaining his place as an opener and even taking over the keeper’s job from the hard-hitting Kedar Jadhav.
The team relies too much on skipper J-P Duminy and an unpredictable Yuvraj Singh. The team needs Yuvraj to fire and prove his worth against a quality attack like the one Bangalore possesses.
Over all, the match holds the promise of providing plenty of fire-works for the packed house on Sunday.
