Including Monday’s, three more matches remain for Delhi Daredevils in the Indian Premier league. These three matches won’t help them resurrect their wretched IPl 2014 campaign but there is an opportunity to provide some meaning to their efforts because a long losing streak can break the will to go out and fight.
But that can only happen if Daredevils win the remaining matches, which looks highly improbable considering their performance so far in the tournament (9 losses in 11 matches) and their opposition in Monday’s game. The bottom-placed Daredevils face the table-toppers Kings XI Punjab at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground here.looking at the batting might of the Punjab side - they have decimated 200-plus targets twice this season - and Delhi’s all-round struggle, it’s more like a ‘David versus Goliath’ contest. The match, however, doesn’t lose its importance as still there are some things at stake.
Delhi, playing their fifth and last match of the season at home, would want to win at least one match at the Ferozeshah Kotla and end their six-match losing streak. They have enough talent in their squad to do so but it is their inability to find the right combination that has rocked their boat.On the other end, KXIP, who have already qualified for the playoffs, are aiming to finish in the top-two to have two chances of making it to the finals. According to the rules, the teams finishing in the top-two will play Qualifier 1 and while the winner gets entry into the final, the loser will play Qualifier 2 against the winner of the Eliminator played between 3rd and 4th placed teams.
“It is important for us to come in first two spots so that even if we lose the first game, we get another chance to qualify for the final. It is also important to maintain the winning momentum because once you start losing, it becomes very difficult to make a comeback. So I don’t think we need to experiment too much,” KXIP opener Cheteshwar Pujara said.