Spotlight on Sunrisers and Daredevils' domestic players

Saturday, April 18, 2015
Start time 1600 local (1030 GMT)

If matches are won by breaking the weakest links in the opposition, both Sunrisers Hyderabad and Delhi Daredevils have plenty of targets. They are heavily dependent on Plan A and much of that is down to local talent that hasn't translated into trustworthy resources.

Besides their losses, consider both teams' victories so far: Sunrisers rode home with David Warner and Shikhar Dhawan at the wheel in Bangalore. Against Rajasthan Royals, they lost control of it, and their team lost the match as well. Against Kings XI Punjab, Daredevils managed to plumb the best out of Mayank Agarwal, but they still needed Yuvraj Singh at the other end and Angelo Mathews for the winning runs. The slate has been wiped clean, but a loss now would sour Daredevils' relief from breaking an 11-match losing streak.

When the proven matchwinners have off days, it would be down to the likes of KL Rahul and Naman Ojha, and Manoj Tiwary and Kedar Jadhav to pick up the slack. Especially considering they are likely to walk out to a pitch more suited to batting after both Sunrisers and Royals expressed displeasure at its sluggish nature on Thursday.

But the bowling attacks each of them would face tomorrow are the reasons either team has been competitive. Trent Boult is never far away from giving headaches to the opposition. Nathan Coulter-Nile's bounce can be a challenge for domestic batsmen. Bhuvneshwar Kumar's yorkers have improved. And it is likely that Imran Tahir suffers withdrawal if he doesn't race around the ground after picking wickets.

Sunrisers took a chase of 128 to the last ball by executing simple disciplines. But as accurate as their seamers have been, Karn Sharma offers some X-factor. Although not quite a classical legspinner, he is well equipped to handle the shortest format. His accuracy helps maintain a tight grip in the middle overs, and he is good with varying his flight according to the batsman he has in front of him. But how would he fare against someone like a set Yuvraj Singh with temptingly short midwicket boundaries?

Daredevils had zeroed in on Angelo Mathews at the auction in February and it is easy to see why they were willing to invest Rs 7.5 crores (approx $1.25 million) in the Sri Lanka captain. He has developed into a calculating batsman who finds ways to keep pressure on the outside looking in. With him for a finisher, the top order can afford to play freely, and if there is a stutter early on Mathews has the game to last 20 overs.

We were 10 to 15 runs short but having said that I think the pitch was a tough one to bat on. The toss became crucial. I don't think it was an ideal T20 surface
Sunrisers Hyderabad mentor VVS Laxman on the Vizag deck last night