On the back of a thumping victory against Rising Pune Supergiants, Delhi Daredevils will be eager to build on that momentum when they face Kings XI Punjab in their maiden home match here on Saturday.
led by the ever-reliable Amit Mishra — second highest wicket-taker in IPl — in bowling, Delhi will be keen to continue their good work with the ball, following two impressive bowling performances.
However, batting seemed to be their biggest worry at the start of the tournament after two most experienced batsmen in Quinton de Kock and JP Duminy had to withdraw from the tournament. However, Delhi seemed to have found a way to deal with those blows. After failing to chase down a mediocre 158 against Royal Challenger Bangalore in the opener, Delhi got their act together against Pune to score a massive 205, thanks to a brilliant 105 by Sanju Samson and a late blitz by Chris Morris (38 off 9 balls). A disciplined bowling effort saw Daredevils bowl out Supergiants for a mere 108 runs, thereby winning the match by 97 runs.
Due to de Kock and Duminy's absence, Delhi were forced to rely on local talents more in this edition of IPl. That seems to work so far. Rishabh Pant has been a consistent performer, coming up with scores of 57 and 31.
Samson will be also brimming with confidence following his maiden T20 hundred.
Opener Sam Billings, however, has failed to convert his good starts into big scores. The English opener will be hoping for a good show in front of the home crowd.
The bowling, however, has been the side's biggest positive so far. Amit Mishra will definitely be their go-to man. The 34-year-old leg spinner is the second highest wicket taker in IPl with 127 wickets from 114 games. Mishra is also the first bowler to take three hat-tricks in IPl history. He was particularly impressive in the last match, picking up three wickets. Vastly familiar with the Kotla wicket, he will spearhead Delhi's attack on Saturday.
Skipper Zaheer Khan was equally good in the previous match, taking three wickets. Besides, Chris Morris' valuable experience will come in handy for them. Moreover, they have one of the best bowling talents in the world in Pat Cummins.
Kings XI, on the other hand, had a reality check in the last outing after starting the tournament with two straight victories. Follwing a massive 8-wicket defeat against Kolkata Knight Riders, Punjab will be eager to put behind the disappointment when they face Delhi.
They have an explosive batting unit. led by their hard-hitting skipper Glenn Maxwell, Punjab have big-hitters in the form of David Miller, Eoin Morgan, Shaun Marsh, Hashim Amla, Martin Guptill and Wriddhiman Saha.
However, bowling seems to be their main concern. Barring Mohit Sharma and the newly recruited Ishant Sharma, they do not have many top experienced bowlers in their side. The likes of Axar Patel, Varun Aaron and Sandeep Sharma need to step up a level to restrict the opposition from scoring big.