Delhi DareDevils will take on Rajasthan Royals in Tuesday’s match at Pretoria. This will be the first match in this IPL that will be played at this venue.
Delhi goes into the match as hot favourites to clinch it; especially after the clinical performance exhibited by them in their first three games. Coral offer 4/6 for them to beat the defending champions Rajasthan, whose batting has disintegrated on more occasions than one in this edition.
The Royals (6/4 at Sporting Bet to win match) face form-problems with most of their top-order batsmen, including Graeme Smith (3/1 at Ladbrokes to be highest scorer for Royals) and previous season’s hero Swapnil Asnodkar (5/1 at Ladbrokes to be highest scorer). However, I won't put it beyond Warne to replace the out-of-form Asnodkar with another batsman.
They are overly reliant on Yusuf Pathan’s (13/2 at Coral to be highest scorer for Royals) ability to clear the fence irrespective of the situation, but his departure has spelt doomsday for the team as was evident in their match-up against the Kings XI Punjab.
On the other hand, the Delhi DareDevils aren’t favourites to win this tournament (currently at 11/4 at Boyle Sports to win IPL-II) for nothing. Their batting which was thought to be dependent on the opening pair of Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, has found out newer avenues in case of trouble in the form of Tillakaratne Dilshan and A.B. de Villiers. However, it isn’t often that Sehwag (7/2 at Ladbrokes to be highest scorer for the DareDevils) and Gambhir (7/2 at Ladbrokes to be highest scorer for the DareDevils) go without runs, and it has been two successive matches that it has happened now. That will be one worry that the Royals’ bowlers will have going into this encounter. Manoj Tiwari has been injured and may not feature in the rest of the tournament.
Talking of Royals’ bowling, Warne has been one of their most economic bowler, but the previous match saw the lower order of Kings XI Punjab tear into him. If Sehwag or Gambhir do survive till the time he comes on to bowl, there is a fair chance that history from Sunday’s night will repeat and he may get taken for runs. My favourite to restrict runs will be the new guy Kamran Khan or a Munaf Patel (4/1 at Stan James) who has this uncanny knack of bowling the right lines and lengths and getting the bowler to do the mistake.
From Delhi’s perspective, it is Daniel Vettori and Dirk Nannes who have stolen the thunder so far, but don’t be surprised if Glen McGrath finds his way back into the playing eleven. Vettori (7/2 at Stan James to be most economic) has a good chance of topping my favourites list for being the most economic bowler, but there is a caveat to it; if he plays. Why I try to second-guess Sehwag here is because Amit Mishra had featured in the previous encounter and to get Mcgrath, he may need to rest Vettori.
Tips:
Team: Delhi DareDevils
Top Delhi batsman: Gautam Gambhir
Top Royals batsman: Graeme Smith
Most economic bowler: Kamran Khan
