The Rajasthan Royal who are in second place in the Pepsi Indian Premier League (IPL) with 12 points from the 10 games that they have completed in the qualifying process, host the Delhi Daredevils on Sunday at the Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai.
The Daredevils sit in fourth position at the end of Friday’s fixtures, but with eight points from their eight games, they position appears a lot more precarious that their hosts this weekend.
When the teams met at the Feroze shah Kotla Stadium, Delhi earlier in the tournament, the Royals won a last ball victory by a margin of three wickets. Delhi having posted 184 for 3, were not quite able to protect their total, and the Royals scampered home having lost seven wickets.
While the Royals own Rahane still heads the chase for the Orange Cap, having amassed 339 runs in the tournament so far, he needs more support from the other batters in the order, if the Royals want to make a serious challenge for the silverware this season, with 2008 being their last title winning season.
Their next highest run scorer, is the internationally prolific Australian Steve Smith, but he has only 195 runs to his name. Posting so few runs, it is hardly surprising that the Royals leading wicket taker, DS Kulkarni has only taken seven wickets up until now.
Delhi have similar problems to their hoists on Sunday, in that they have just not been able to score sufficient runs on a consistent basis.
Their leading scorer is SS Iyar who has scored 281 runs, and is the fourth highest scorer in the tournament. However, JP Duminy of whom so much is expected, has accumulated only 220 runs, although that makes him his side’s second highest scorer. Duminy has at least also contributed eight wickets to his team’s cause.