These are still early days in the Indian Premier League but almost every team has been hit by injuries. Two of the most consistent teams – Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Daredevils – find their captains on the casualty list and play under stand-in skippers when they face off at the Ferozeshah Kotla on Friday afternoon.
Armed with two away wins, the Daredevils were flying high until the marauding Mumbai Indians brought them down with a thud on Wednesday night.
With skipper Gautam Gambhir leaving the field in the second over of the match with a suspected hamstring injury, Dinesh Karthik took over the charge but nothing went right for the home team. Eventually, it was proved that Daredevils either wins by a mile or loses by a similar distance.
On Friday, Karthik and Chennai’s Suresh Raina will be the captains for the first time. Raina takes charge from an injured Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Both skippers would hope for the much-believed Beginner’s Luck to be on his side.
Sometimes, a big loss does not hurt as much as a narrow last-ball defeat. Daredevils can take heart from the fact that Wednesday was just not their night and move on hoping for a better tomorrow.
Tipped as the title-favourites by the bookmakers, Daredevils depends much too heavily on the big four – Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Tilakaratne Dilshan and AB de Villiers. At least one of these four players has clicked in each of Delhi’s victories since the inception of the IPL.
But a collective failure of the top-order has inevitably led the team to doom. Further, the inability to come good in big matches, like the two semifinals, has not done the reputation of Daredevils any good.
On the other hand, Chennai has many more match-winners. Even without the services of Mike Hussey, Jacob Oram and now Dhoni, the team has the resources to come out stronger.
Having shaken off a poor start against Deccan Chargers, Chennai brought down a rejuvenated Kolkata Knights with an all-round show.
Variety in bowling remains Chennai’s plus point while batting runs deep and appears dependable with Mathew Hayden due a big one, M. Vijay, a motivated Parthiv Patel, Raina, Badrinath, Justin Kemp and Albie Morkel while M. S. Gony is capable of a strong finish.
The last time the teams met here, Chennai’s four-wicket win came off the last ball due to Gony’s timely big hits. This time, too, this battle of equals has the potential to throw up unlikely heroes of the day.
