It’s that time of the year when the IPL gets really serious. Yes, the playoffs are not far away and every side in the top half of the IPL is desperate to book a spot. Delhi Daredevils have had a very good IPL so far, but have faltered a bit having lost 3 of their last five matches. The defeat against Mumbai Indians was particularly bad for them.
It is clear that Daredevils are a very young and inexperienced side and their batting line-up can be quite brittle. Their spinners too can end up leaking too many runs. What hasn’t helped the Daredevils is that key players such as Zaheer Khan have gotten themselves injured. They could do very well with a couple of wins, that would put them through into the playoffs. But the way they have been playing last few games, that win seems far away.
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Rising Pune Supergiants are out of the playoffs and were the first team to bow out. They have nothing to play for, except pride. And you may be rest assured that the captain of the Pune outfit, MS Dhoni is a very proud man indeed. So we expect the Rising Pune Supergiants to play with a free mind in their remaining games in this IPL. We expect them to be completely unpredictable and to play with real passion.
Daredevils would be well aware of this. They also know that Dhoni would be hurting inside. Dhoni has never finished outside the top four in his IPL career with Chennai Super Kings and he would be desperate not to finish last. He will want to win.
Dhoni has an in-form player in Australia’s George Bailey, but he has to improve his strike rate to be effective in this IPL. So far he has only scored at a run-a-ball.
Quinton de Kock has been the standout batsman for the Daredevils. He is a very tough player who has been through many ups and downs in his short career already. He is also a very determined cricketer who desperately wants to succeed no matter which side he plays for or which format he plays in.
Now, about the team news, there is no way to predict which side the Supergiants would go with. They might as well change the whole side except for captain Dhoni. It’s not like they have anything to lose.
As for Delhi, their younger players, apart from de Kock have really failed to perform in this IPL. Carlos Brathwaite and Pawan Negi are expected to come in for Shahbaz Nadeem and Imran Tahir, so they should certainly have a stronger batting lineup for tonight’s match.
The Teams
Rising Pune Supergiants : 1 Ajinkya Rahane, 2 Usman Khawaja, 3 Saurabh Tiwary, 4 George Bailey, 5 Thisara Perera, 6 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 7 Irfan Pathan/Rajat Bhatia, 8 R Ashwin, 9 Adam Zampa, 10 Ashok Dinda 11 RP Singh/Ishant Sharma/Ishwar Pandey
Delhi Daredevils : 1 Quinton de Kock (wk), 2 Mayank Agarwal/Shreyas Iyer, 3 Karun Nair, 4 Sanju Samson, 5 Rishabh Pant, 6 JP Duminy, 7 Chris Morris, 8 Shahbaz Nadeem/Pawan Negi 9 Imran Tahir/Carlos Brathwaite, 10 Amit Mishra, 11 Zaheer Khan (capt)
Match Conditions
The Vishakapatnam track changes behavior with every match. Nobody can really predict how it will play for tonight’s game. The weather isn’t perfect though. There is a strong possibility of rain and there is a chance that the match could be washed out.
Watch Rising Pune Supergiants play Delhi Daredevils tonight at 8:00 pm LIVE on Sony Six!
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