New Delhi: Hosts Delhi will take on Rajasthan at the Ferozeshah Kotla on Wednesday. With six games left to play in the IPL league stage, Delhi are more or less out, unless they script a miraculous comeback and go on to win the remaining games. From here on, they cannot afford to lose a game if they harbour any hopes of qualifying for the playoffs. However, that looks a meek possibility as the team hasn't fired as a unit. Most of their big buys haven't done justice to their price tags and it has hurt Delhi's campaign in a grand manner. Delhi need to take tough calls on Wednesday and may opt for Jason Roy in place of misfiring Glenn Maxwell.
On the other hand, Rajasthan have remained inconsistent. With three wins in seven games, RR too have less time at hand to resurrect their campaign. A good thing about them is their batting which has clicked more often than not. All-rounder Jofra Archer has boosted their bowling, especially in the death overs. However, their biggest buy Ben Stokes hasn't put a strong foot forward. With the IPL having entered its second half, it is expected Stokes shines.
Delhi will look to settle scores against RR as the first leg at Jaipur saw the hosts claiming the tie in a rain-curtailed fixture. DD despite holding them well within the par total, were asked to chase 71 in six overs. Delhi lost the game by 10 runs.
Iyer and Pant have done the bulk of the scoring for Delhi, amassing 306 and 257 runs respectively so far and the onus would be on the duo to lead the batting unit tomorrow. Among the bowlers, Trent Boult has been among the wickets, claiming 11 scalps so far but he didn't get support from the rest. It has resulted in their failure to defend totals, putting their batting under pressure.
Shankar said they are doing most things right but small mistakes have resulted in losses. "We, as a team, are doing well but it is the small things which is changing the entire result of the game," he said. "We were chasing 80 from six overs or something against Chennai, we got close to the target, lost by 13 runs. We tried our best and we would look to move forward from this and look to do better and build ourself into a good team," he said.
Rajasthan Royals, on the other hand, are placed fifth in the table with six points from seven matches. Ajinkya Rahane's team has been inconsistent this season as most times a win has been followed by a loss and they will also have to find a way to stem the rot if they have to make it to the play-offs.
Their failure to chase down a target of 151-7 against Sunrisers Hyderabad saw Rajasthan Royals lose the match by 11 runs. It was despite Rahane scoring a 65 and Samson hitting a 40 as they didn't get support from other batsmen.
Rahane and Samson have been their best batsmen this season but an inconsistent run of Ben Stokes and Jos Butler has affected their performance this season. Among the bowlers, young seamer Jofra Archer have done well to claim six wickets in the two matches that he has played so far. But RR's spinners Shreyas Gopal and K Gowtham failed to bother the batsmen much, taking five wickets each.
Teams:
Delhi Daredevils: Shreyas Iyer (C), Rishabh Pant, Glenn Maxwell, Gautam Gambhir, Jason Roy, Colin Munro, Mohammed Shami, Amit Mishra, Prithvi Shaw, Rahul Tewatia, Vijay Shankar, Harshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Shahbaz Nadeem, Daniel Christian, Jayant Yadav, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Trent Boult, Manjot Kalra, Abhishek Sharma, Sandeep Lamichhane, Naman Ojha, Sayan Ghosh, Liam Plunkett, Junior Dala.
Rajasthan Royals: Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Ankit Sharma, Anureet Singh, Jofra Archer, Stuart Binny, Aryaman Birla, Jos Buttler, Dushmantha Chameera, Prashant Chopra, Shreyas Gopal, Krishnappa Gowtham, Heinrich Klaasen, Dhawal Kulkarni, Ben Laughlin, Mahipal Lomror, Sudhesan Midhun, Sanju Samson, Jatin Saxena, D'Arcy Short, Ish Sodhi, Ben Stokes, Rahul Tripathi, Jaydev Unadkat.
