Desperate Punjab up against Delhi
Having already secured a place in the semi-finals, Delhi would be keen to continue the good work when they take on Punjab today.
If Delhi are on a high after becoming the first team to qualify for the last four stage with 16 points from 10 matches, Punjab have been laid low by some rather inconsistent performance that see them second from the bottom of the points table in the eight-team event.
They Yuvraj Singh-led side desperately need a victory against the marauding Daredevils if they hope to make it to the semi-finals but doing so will be one huge task given the rich vein of form the Delhi is going through right now.
Kings XI Punjab need to pull out something special of the hat and one man who can do that is skipper Yuvraj himself. He had a rather sedate tournament so far and is long overdue a big score.
The others too need to chip in and if their last encounter against Mumbai Indians is anything to go by, then a lot need to be done in their batting department.
Formidable
To add to that Mahela's Jayawardene's hamstring injury still remains a matter of concern for the Punjab thinktank. The Sri Lankan didn't feature in the last match after sustaining the injury against Deccan Chargers on May 9.
The bowling has improved with Brett Lee's arrival but lacks the bite despite the presence of left-arm pacers Yusuf Abdulla and Irfan Pathan. S Sreesanth has been a big disappointment for the Kings XI with the maverick right-arm pacer scalping just one wicket from his three outings conceding huge runs.
The Kings XI bowling will be tested to the limit against a formidable Daredevils batting line-up that boasts the likes of Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, David Warner, AB de Villiers, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Dinesh Karthik. All of them are in fine form and the best part of Delhi's batting is that even if one fails, the rest are there to shoulder the burden.
The bowling department too is quite balanced with youngsters Pradeep Sangwan and Rajat Bhatia giving Ashish Nehra and Dirk Nannes good company. In Amit Mishra, Delhi have a quality spinner who can put the opposition in all sorts of trouble.
Still, bowling could be a cause of concern for Sehwag especially after the manner in which Adam Gilchrist and Andrew Symonds hammered their way in the last match.
It needed a Bhatia special to turn things around for Delhi but Sehwag must be aware that such things don't happen everyday.
Kings XI Punjab would also hope that for once the Delhi batting fails to fire for it will be their only hope for survival in this year's IPL.
Approaching milestones
- Yuvraj Singh (296) needs four runs to become the first
batsman to aggregate 300 runs in the second edition of
the IPL.
- Tillakaratne Dilshan (286) requires 14 runs to become
the second batsman from Delhi Daredevils to aggregate
300 runs in the second edition of the IPL. Abraham
de Villiers (315) was the first to achieve the feat.
- Ashish Nehra (15) needs two wickets to overtake
Rudra Pratap Singh's tally of 16 in the second edition
of the IPL and to become the leading wicket-taker.
Head to head
Played Won Lost NR/Tied Winning %
Delhi 24 15 9 - 62.50
vs. Punjab 3 1 2 - 33.33
Punjab 26 15 11 - 57.69
vs.Delhi 3 2 1 - 66.67
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