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Navi Mumbai: Delhi Daredevils is yet to find the right momentum in IPL 4, but would hope to fire when they take on the Yuvraj Singh led team Pune Warriors on Sunday.
That's precisely what happened with Delhi Daredevils. They gave up on a squad that for the first three years had always looked strong enough to be title contenders, and for the fourth year, shopped for a new-look team, with the exception of Virender Sehwag and David Warner among the well-known names.
Having parted with players like AB de Villiers, Gautam Gambhir, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Daniel Vettori and Dirk Nannes, they've settled this time for Aaron Finch, James Hopes, Colin Ingram, Morne Morkel and Irfan Pathan among others. As a player says, "It's only natural that things will take a little time before falling in place."
Most players in the squad have a theory — going into their third match of the season — against Pune Warriors on Sunday. "In the first match, our batting looked completely out of place (when Delhi scored just 95 batting first against Mumbai Indians). In the second game, our bowling suffered (and Rajasthan chased a comparatively healthier 151 with considerable ease). Watch out, this time (on Sunday) it will be much better," they say.
Daredevils coach Greg Shipperd too doesn't think there's any kind of a sinking feeling inside the Delhi camp — team owners included — of having to make do with a squad that lost out on quite a few marquee players. On the contrary, he trusts the present bunch as much as the players trust themselves. "We have quite a few young players and we've been looking to get the best combination," says the coach, accepting that until now the team had been in a trial-and-error mode.
The Daredevils certainly believe their fans can expect a bit of a turnaround on Sunday evening. To make that possible though, they have to contend with the only team that hasn't lost a single match in the tournament so far — Pune Warriors. Yuvraj Singh & Co — a young side playing their home matches at Navi Mumbai's DY Patil Stadium — have been looking very good indeed and for Delhi's theory to come true, they'll have to come up with something really special.
Expect Delhi to play Umesh Yadav and Varun Aaron on Sunday, two young pacers who have it in them to extract some kind of bounce from the DY Patil track which is likely to be very helpful. Yadav played in the opening game against Mumbai but Aaron, who has travelled with the team to Navi Mumbai, is yet to find his way into the eleven so far.
Pune Warriors certainly can't afford to be complacent against this side, especially because of the two men who open for Daredevils — Sehwag and Warner.
Both batsmen are yet to get going in the tournament, which means a big one might just be round the corner. If the Daredevils can find their feet in Sunday's game with a suitable combination and performance to match, they'll surely follow Kochi Tuskers' footsteps in reviving a bit of that much-needed self-confidence.
Teams from
Pune Warriors Yuvraj Singh (capt), Imtiyaz Ahmed, ER Dwivedi, CJ Ferguson, GB Gaikwad, Harpreet Singh, DS Jadhav, AA Jhunjhunwala, Kamran Khan, M Kartik, HH Khadiwale, B Kumar, NL McCullum, M Manhas, MR Marsh, AD Mathews, MD Mishra, SS Mundhe, A Nehra, TD Paine (wk), MK Pandey, WD Parnell, S Rana, JD Ryder, R Sharma, GC Smith, JE Taylor, AC Thomas, RV Uthappa, SB Wagh
Delhi Daredevils V Sehwag (capt), VR Aaron, AB Agarkar, TR Birt, R Bist, U Chand, A Chandila, AB Dinda, AJ Finch, R Frylinck, JR Hopes, CA Ingram, AB McDonald, M Morkel, S Nadeem, Y Nagar, PT Naik, NV Ojha (wk), IK Pathan, RV Pawar, AM Salvi, S Sriram, RE van der Merwe, Y Venugopal Rao, Vikas Mishra, MS Wade, DA Warner, TP Yadav, U Yadav, Vivek Yadav
Match facts
Sunday April 17, 20111 (day/night)
Start time 1600 local (1030 GMT)
