Sports Pundit
Cricket

Delhi v Kolkata at Delhi IPL 2011 Preview Live

The Match: In the 33rd game of the Indian Premier League, the Delhi Daredevils will take on the Kolkata Knight Riders at the Feroz Shah Kotla.

The Match: In the 33rd game of the Indian Premier League, the Delhi Daredevils will take on the Kolkata Knight Riders at the Feroz Shah Kotla. Both sides have seen a loss in their previous game and will look to overcome that in a bid to stand a chance of getting to the next round. Will look to win this one>

How the two teams match up: The Delhi Daredevils went down to the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the last game which was played at home for them. In turn, they have won only two of the six games that they have played and are currently placed second-last in the points table, just above the Deccan Chargers. Probably needs to be replaced>

On the other hand, the Kolkata Knight Riders have been a bit up and down in the tournament so far. They had started off with a loss, but won three in a row. This was followed by two more losses and the side now has three wins from six games and a fourth position in the points table.

Ground Conditions: A lot depends on the pitch where they will play this game. If they decide to choose the same track where the Delhi Daredevils had got to 232 in the Punjab game, then it will mean that this is the third game on that track in five days – and despite all the grass, batting may not be as simple as before.

The Teams: The Delhi Daredevils will look to change things around for sure. They have Irfan Pathan, who has been the worst form of being a non-performing asset and he has been conceding far too many runs in the opening overs, not scoring too many off his own bat and as was shown in the last game, dropping catches as well. A better option would be to get in Varun Aaron.

The other factor is the middle-order where someone like Colin Ingram could be much better-suited than the others. Matthew Wade could miss out.

For the Kolkata Knight Riders, Gautam Gambhir did admit that he had made a mistake by not selecting Brett Lee in the game and that could be a sign that changes are in the offing. The batting could also shift around – a Brad Haddin exclusion to get in Lee will mean that Manvinder Bisla could be back at the top.

Players to look out for: Kolkata need the middle-order batsmen to get going – Eoin Morgan and Yusuf Pathan have done nothing in the tournament so far. On the other hand, Sehwag will be the batsman to look out for Delhi

Prediction: Kolkata Knight Riders will be favourites but Delhi are playing at home.