Eagles face unpredictable Daredevils
Never before in the Indian Premier League have the terms “home” and “away” been bandied about so much, what with the Sunrisers Hyderabad increasingly looking unbeatable at home, having won four out of four matches. Among other teams, the Royal Challengers Bangalore immediately come to mind, having won only one of their away games while emerging victors in all of their home matches.
The two teams clashing in Saturday’s late game at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium here — Sunrisers and the Delhi Daredevils — are brimming with confidence, coming off victories. Ironically enough, both teams had won at home and each win was registered with seven wickets in hand. In a season where no team has clearly dominated, this will be a clash that could be billed “David versus David”.
It could be argued that the edge is with the Eagles, as they possess the finest bowling attack this season. The Eagles have yet to concede more than 130 in an innings at home while Delhi’s batsmen have blown hot and cold so far. Apart from the dynamo that is David Warner, no other Delhi batsman has performed with any consistency. Virender Sehwag dazzled, as only he can, with a 95 in one innings, but he would be hard-pressed to repeat that on the Hyderabad wicket. Unmukt Chand played well alongside Warner during the chase in their previous game.
Looking at the bigger picture, the Delhi batting lineup looks like a work in progress. As does their opponents’ line-up.
Shikhar Dhawan’s arrival might have transformed the Sunrisers’ batting line-up from the mediocre to only the average, but there is no denying that he has brightened the Eagles’ show with the wil-
Eagles have the edge as they possess the finest bowling attack. They have yet to concede more than 130 at home while Delhi’s batsmen have blown hot and cold so far
low. Add to that flashes of brilliance from Cameron White as well as local lads G.H. Vihari and Ashish Reddy, the Eagles pack some power with the bat but that cannot be taken for granted.
However, this match, like its predecessors, is hardly likely to be about how well the Sunrisers bat.
Dale Steyn is a bowler to be respected and feared. And when he leads an attack in red hot form and containing the likes of Amit Mishra and Ishant Sharma, it’s not a good time to be a batsman. Especially not at the RGICS.
Delhi sit second from bottom and their bowlers just as culpable as the batsmen. They too have had a rather unremarkable season thus far, with Umesh Yadav the only bowler to take more than 10 wickets.
But Delhi have undeniably had their moments. And if anything is for sure, it is the fact that they will fight for survival in every match hereon and for that reason alone, the Eagles cannot relax.
For, the visitors have one too many Jacks-in-the-box for comfort.
Delhi Daredevils pacer Umesh Yadav on tackling the in-form Shikhar Dhawan: Nothing has been discussed about Dhawan in particular. We obviously have a strategy for every batsmen. We’ll take the field and take it from there. On his performance so far: It hasn’t been great, to be honest. I’m coming back from an injury layoff. I got wickets in some games, and haven’t in others. What matters to me is that I’m playing. Sunrisers Hyderabad mentor Kris Srikkanth on how the team has shaped up so far: I’m very happy with where the team is. All the players are playing well, our energy on the field has been great. Players like Amit Mishra, Dale Steyn, Shikhar Dhawan have done exceedingly well. Especially Dhawan, who’s returning from a long injury-induced break. Our first goal is to make the play-offs and then, the final, and hopefully, win the cup. On how the team will approach the remaining games: I don’t believe in playing the game using numbers or on the computer. Cricket is meant to be played between the bat and the ball. It’s very simple in T20 cricket, where you have little time to think unlike in Tests or One-Day Internationals.