Daredevils' young batsmen brace for KKR's spin charge
Delhi Daredevils' top order, the least experienced in the league, will face a formidable Kolkata Knight Riders spin attack in a home match on Monday
The Preview by Rachna Shetty
16-Apr-2017
Match facts
Delhi Daredevils v Kolkata Knight Riders
Monday, April 17, 2017
Start time 1600 local
Monday, April 17, 2017
Start time 1600 local
Head to head
Last season Daredevils beat Knight Riders at home by 27 runs but were walloped in their away match, collapsing to 98 in a nine-wicket defeat.
Overall record Knight Riders have won 10 out of the 17 matches between the two sides. At Feroz Shah Kotla, Daredevils' home ground, Knight Riders have won four out of six matches.
In the news
Given the possibility of facing a pitch similar to Daredevils' game against Kings XI Punjab on Saturday, which played slow, there could be a case for Knight Riders making a switch, with Shakib Al Hasan coming in for Chris Woakes or Colin de Grandhomme. This could bolster their already formidable spin attack and lengthen their batting a bit against one of the most economical bowling attacks in the end overs. Daredevils, this season, have an economy rate of 6.44 in the last five overs, the lowest for all teams. Woakes has taken wickets for Knight Riders but has had an economy rate of under 10 in only one out of four matches.
Likely XIs
Delhi Daredevils: 1 Sanju Samson, 2 Sam Billings, 3 Shreyas Iyer, 4 Karun Nair, 5 Rishabh Pant (wk), 6 Corey Anderson, 7 Chris Morris, 8 Pat Cummins, 9 Amit Mishra, 10 Zaheer Khan (capt), 11 Shahbaz Nadeem
Kolkata Knight Riders: 1 Sunil Narine, 2 Gautam Gambhir (capt), 3 Robin Uthappa (wk), 4 Manish Pandey, 5 Yusuf Pathan, 6 Suryakumar Yadav, 7 Colin de Grandhomme/Rovman Powell, 8 Chris Woakes/Shakib Al Hasan, 9 Kuldeep Yadav 10 Umesh Yadav, 11 Trent Boult
Strategy punt
Expect Zaheer Khan and Chris Morris to bowl at least three overs inside the the Powerplay, especially if Sunil Narine falls early. They have enjoyed success against Gautam Gambhir and Robin Uthappa. Zaheer has bowled 40 balls to Uthappa for just 41 runs and two wickets. Against Morris he has scored just 26 off 27 balls. Morris has troubled Gambhir more: 21 balls, 16 runs, and three dismissals.
Key stats
- Knight Riders batsmen have scored a total of 224 runs in the Powerplay at a run rate of 9.20. Of these, Gambhir has scored 105 runs off 68 balls. His current strike rate of 154 is already his second best in Powerplays in IPL, after the 2012 IPL.
- Amit Mishra has 50 wickets at Feroz Shah Kotla. Harbhajan Singh and Lasith Malinga - at Wankhede Stadium - are the only other bowlers who have taken more than 50 wickets at one venue.
- It isn't just Morris and Zaheer Khan that Uthappa is vulnerable against. Amit Mishra has dismissed him four times in 10 innings in the IPL.
- Daredevils' batting top four is the least experienced of the eight teams in the league. The overall collective experience of batsmen in the current Daredevils squad who have played in the top four stands at 377 T20 innings with 8587 runs at an average of 25.55, with one century and 51 fifties. The next least experienced team is Rising Pune Supergiant. Their top four batsmen have 785 innings, with more than 19000 runs
Rachna Shetty is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo