Delhi look to rediscover winning ways

Match facts

Thursday, May 15, 2008
Start time 20.00 (local), 14.30 (GMT)

The Big Picture

The wheels seem to have fallen off for Delhi Daredevils, who lost four games in a row and languish in fifth place after being on top of the table less than two weeks ago. The good news for them, though, is the schedule: two of their next three games are against Deccan Chargers and Bangalore Royal Challengers, clearly the weakest teams in the tournament. Kolkata Knight Riders used their matches against these opponents to find their way back into the IPL, and it's now Delhi's turn to do the same and inject some momentum into their campaign again.

On current form it might appear that Deccan are already out of the tournament, but if they win the rest of their matches and other results go their way, they can still make a push for a semi-final spot. For that to happen, though, Deccan must significantly spruce up their act - they were woeful in the field during their previous match, against Kolkata. Their big stars have failed to get their act together too, but going by their track record so far, an away game gives them the best chance of success - they've won two out of five away matches, but lost all four at home.

One of those four defeats was a nine-wicket drubbing at the hands of Delhi when the two teams first met more than three weeks ago. On that occasion, only one Deccan batsman made more than 15; they'll need much better teamwork if they are to get a favourable result this time.

Tournament position

Delhi Daredevils: P9, W4, L5, NRR +0.291 Deccan Chargers: P9, W2, L7, NRR -0.352

IPL form (last five matches, most recent first)

Delhi Daredevils: LLLLW
Deccan Chargers: LLWLL

Delhi's top order has wobbled in the last few matches, and they might be tempted to bring in the all-round talent of Rajat Bhatia instead of one of the specialist bowlers, possibly Yo Mahesh. The rest of the line-up has a settled look to it, and it's only a matter of hoping that the big stars turn it on at the Feroz Shah Kotla.

Delhi Daredevils (probable): 1 Gautam Gambhir, 2 Virender Sehwag (capt), 3 Shikhar Dhawan, 4 AB de Villiers (wk), 5 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 6 Manoj Tiwary, 7 Rajat Bhatia, 8 Amit Mishra, 9 Farveez Maharoof, 10 Pradeep Sangwan, 11 Glenn McGrath.

Deccan dropped Shahid Afridi in the previous match, but Chaminda Vaas, his replacement, had a forgettable outing, leaking 36 in three overs. Afridi could return for this one, especially given the short boundaries at the Kotla.

Deccan Chargers (probable); 1 Adam Gilchrist (capt & wk), 2 Herschelle Gibbs, 3 Venugopal Rao, 4 Rohit Sharma, 5 Ravi Teja, 6 Scott Styris, 7 Shahid Afridi, 8 Sanjay Bangar, 9 Pragyan Ojha, 10 RP Singh, 11 P Vijaykumar.

Stats and trivia

Adam Gilchrist and Rohit Sharma have contributed 45% of the total runs off the bat scored by Deccan.

Quotes

"It's time to look forward. Now we have nothing to lose but to win the remaining five games. If we can win all the next five matches, we can still change the calculations for the semis in our favour. That's what we are trying to do now."
Adam Gilchrist tries his best to stay positive despite the string of defeats.