Delhi Daredevils turned up for their match-eve practice session in two batches. First batch consisted of mainly lesser known players and all-rounders including Albie Morkel (he is well known though). The second batch had members of their core group that included captain JP Duminy and Yuvraj Singh.
It was pretty much the same as Daredevils turned up against Chennai Super Kings for their season opener on Thursday earlier this week and fell short by 1 run — their 10th successive loss over two seasons.
Chasing 151, Daredevils sent Mayank Aggarwal, CM Gautam, Morkel, Shreyas Iyer and Kedar Jadhav ahead of IPl's most expensive signing Yuvraj and Duminy, who was also their top run-getter last season. It wasn't until 14th over that Yuvraj came in to bat with Delhi needing close to 10 runs per over. And Duminy was sent in an over later.
In hindsight, to hold back the team's main batsmen for so late was a blunder. CSK was way off their best in that match and Daredevils should be very angry with themselves for letting such a good opportunity go.
In their second match, at the Ferozeshah Kotla on Sunday, Daredevils meet Rajasthan Royals, who certainly don't have deep pockets like Delhi but they have depth in resources. It is possible that the eleven that Royals will send out on Sunday may not equal the amount that Delhi spent on Yuvraj alone yet it is the visitors who will enter the game as favourites.
In fact, Royals have a better head-to-head record against Daredevils - 8 wins against 6 losses, including wins in last four meetings.
like every year, Royals have assembled a balanced side. They have three World Cup heroes - Steven Smith, Shane Watson and James Faulkner - in the squad to go with Tim Southee, Ajinkya Rahane and Stuart Binny, who are also part of the mega event. But it's not the star value that defines the Rajasthan outfit. It's how they compliment each other that makes others envious.
There is balance and power in the side that they showed against last year's finalists Kings XI Punjab in the first match. Despite the failure of their top-order, Royals managed to post 162 proving the depth in their batting department. However, against KXIP, who boast of some of the best hitters of the ball in their ranks, it wasn't a safe total. Still, Royals won the match by 26 runs with relative ease proving the richness of their bowling stocks.
Southee, Chris Morris, James Faulkner, Dhawal Kulkarni and Pravin Tambe could well be an international bowling attack. Daredevils too have a competitive attack in Nathan Coulter-Nile, Imran Tahir and Amit Mishra and the inclusion of Mohammed Shami and Zaheer Khan in the coming matches would definitely make it a more complete attack.
Against Royals on Sunday, it would be their batting and not bowling that would be a worry for Daredevils.