Delhi Daredevils will be playing at their second home ground in Raipur when they come up against the Pune Warriors India on Sunday, April 28 as both teams look to push on after a poor first half in the current edition of the IPL.
The Daredevils have only won a single match throughout the course of the season.
In their last outing, the Delhi Daredevils slumped to yet another defeat after what could be termed as irresponsible batting from most of their top order batsmen.
The batsmen who are in form at the present time are David Warner, Virender Sehwag, and Mahela Jayawardena. A lot will depend on how they perform on Sunday. Roelof van der Merwe got a look in the other day against the Kings XI Punjab, however, the South African did absolutely nothing that merits a stay in the starting lineup.
I expect somebody else to come in and replace him, probably a batsman who can score some runs for the home team. The bowling department lacks a quality spinner, but the likes of Morne Morkel and Irfan Pathan are good fast bowlers who have done well at the international level. The Daredevils need to excel in every department of the game if they are to win.
The Pune Warriors India have a lot to worry about their bowling. For a team to lose after scoring a huge 185 runs, and that too to the Kings XI Punjab is plain carelessness.
The likes of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ashok DInda, Rahul Sharma, and Ajantha Mendis need to bowl well for the Warriors to have a realistic chance on Sunday.
The batting lineup featuring Robin Uthappa, Aaron Finch, Yuvraj Singh, Steve Smith and Luke Wright will hope to repeat their performances from the last game and why not – there is enough potential there to score big.
This should be an exciting encounter as both teams will give their all to salvage some points from the second phase of the tournament.