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Cape Town: Delhi Daredevils and Kings XI Punjab were semi-finalists in the inaugural season of the IPL but both stumbled at the penultimate hurdle. In the lead-up to the second edition.
Delhi have emerged pre-tournament favourites and with good reason: they possess an outstanding balance and their top overseas players are available for the entire tournament.
For Yuvraj, the biggest concern would be finding some way to cut short the stay of the two dangerous openers, plus Australian batting sensation David Warner, who at No 3 cause a fair bit of damage too.
Sehwag and Gambhir were in explosive form during India's tour of New Zealand, de Villiers had a successful summer against Australia and Vettori was steady as ever for New Zealand during their season.
Delhi's bowling, in comparison, looks much better, though they would definitely miss the pace and incisiveness of Mohammad Asif this time.
Still, the medium-pace of Glenn McGrath, Yo Mahesh and the spin of Daniel Vettori and Amit Mishra is a decent combination.
Yuvraj was in hot form during the ODIs in New Zealand but struggled in the Tests; Pathan played the two Twenty20 internationals in New Zealand but got smashed for 38 in three overs and 41 in four.
The problem for the King's XI Punjab skipper is, his bowling resources are thinner than ever. There is no Brett Lee, no Sreesanth, and no James Hopes, at least till the first nine matches, either.
The onus on stopping this 'awesome threesome', would thus fall upon Irfan Pathan and Piyush Chawla and South African left-arm seamer Yusuf Abdullah.
Match facts
Sunday April 19, 2009
Start time 12:30pm local (10:30 GMT), 4:00 pm India
