Delhi Daredevils will take on the Rajasthan Royals on Sunday at Feroz Shah Kotla stadium in Delhi. Although it is a home game for Delhi, they will have to play some good cricket to outclass the in-form Royals.
The Daredevils came very close to a victory against the Chennai Super Kings in their first match and on the other hand, the Royals beat KXIP in a hard-fought battle. Delhi would like to work on their batting order formation and Royals seems to have found their right combination. Here are some of the key battles that one can expect from this match:
Steve Smith vs Imran Tahir: With the sort of form that Smith is in, one can expect great things out of this Australian star batsman. He uses his feet well against the spin bowling and also likes to hit the ball against the turn. Tahir, in the last match, bowled an economic spell and is a difficult customer to deal with. His deliveries skid through the surface and make it difficult for the batsmen to play shots. An interesting contest on the cards.
Yuvraj Singh vs Pravin Tambe: When Royals beat KXIP, Tambe gave away only 15 runs in his three overs that he bowled. He can deceive any batsmen with his flight and comes in handy with a relatively old bowl in the middle overs. Although Yuvraj relishes the right-arm leg-spin bowling, it will be difficult to score from Tambe's bowling. Yuvi had a poor match with the bat in his last match, but he would be raring to go and definitely needs to be pushed up the batting order.
Shane Watson vs Nathan Coulter-Nile: Watson who sat out with a niggle would look to make his way back to the team and his records with his bat in the IPL speaks well of him. Coulter-Nile, on the other hand, bagged three wickets, but proved to be a little expensive. His full-length deliveries towards the end of the innings will be difficult to score from, but if he misses his length then he will concede plenty.
Albie Morkel vs James Faulkner: Morkel almost took Delhi home against CSK in their first match where they needed six of the last ball and Morkel only managed to hit it for a four. His innings of 73 runs went in vain, but he would look to repeat the same against the Royals. Faulkner on the other hand, was adjudged the man of the match for his all-round performance. He is an important aspect for the Royals both with the bat and ball.
JP Duminy vs Tim Southee: Duminy as we all know can be dangerous in the shorter format of the game. But he definitely needs to push himself up the batting order along with Yuvraj Singh so that they find their momentum back. Southee proved to be a little expensive with the ball, but he removed Virender Sehwag from the very first ball and took an outstanding catch along with Karun Nair in the out-field. He hits the york length quite often and Duminy will definitely be aware of that.
Delhi will have to come up with an all-round performance in order to counter the Royals' bowling and the Royals would look to carry on with their winning ways. The match starts at 4pm IST and will be telecast live on Sony Six and Sony Max.
