The Delhi Daredevils will be a worried team when they face Royal Challengers Bangalore in their opening match of IPL7 at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium today (Thursday), after captain Kevin Pietersen was ruled out the match due to a finger injury.
The Daredevils finished bottom last season and came into this tournament sporting a completely new look-team. But they suffered a huge blow on the eve of the match in the form of Pietersen’s injury, which means the likes of Ross Taylor, JP Duminy, Murali Vijay and Dinesh Karthik will have to step up.
The pressure will also be on the two Tiwary’s – Manoj and Saurabh – as well as young batsmen Quinton de Kock and Kedar Jadhav to deliver.
“He (Pietersen) did not play in the practice match and he won’t be considered for tomorrow’s game. Dinesh Karthik will captain the side,” Delhi Daredevils’ assistant coach Eric Simons said.
“It is a setback for us because he is an important player in our setup.
“It is a bit of a jolt for us, but what we did well during the auction was that we made sure that we had covered all the areas. “I think we have got ample replacements about who we can consider during such situations.”
In the absence of Pietersen, the focus will be on two of the most expensive buys of this year’s auction.
The Royal Challengers signed lefthander Yuvraj Singh for a whopping 140 million rupees ($2.3m) while the Daredevils bought wicketkeeper batsman Karthik for 125 million rupees ($2 million).
Both teams will depend on them to come up with the goods in what will be an exciting match – the first time an ‘Indian’ team has played in Sharjah in 14 years.
Bangalore have stitched together a star-studded team with Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli in their line-up.
However, they have failed to capitalise on the big moments and have missed out on playoffs the last couple of seasons. Numbers indicate that the Royal Challengers hold the upper hand going into this contest.
They have a 6-5 win-loss record and have also won their last five encounters.
TEAMS
Delhi (likely): M Vijay, Ross Taylor, JP Duminy, Dinesh Karthik (wk, capt), Saurabh Tiwary, Manoj Tiwary, Jimmy Neesham, Wayne Parnell, Shahbaz Nadeem, Mohammed Shami, Rahul Sharma
Bangalore (likley): Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli (capt), Parthiv Patel (wk), Yuvraj Singh, AB de Villiers, Vijay Zol, Albie Morkel, Mitchell Starc, Shadab Jakati, Varun Aaron, Ashok Dinda T20 in Sharjah, 18:30 OSN Sports Cricket HD
