By IANS,
Jaipur : Delhi Daredevils will have to pull up their socks and check their downslide when they face Rajasthan Royals in Indian Premier League Sunday.
Delhi Daredevils crushed Rajasthan Royals in their first match at home, but since then the Royals have grown from strength to strength and now lead the IPL standings.
Royals have won six of their eight matches and came back strongly after losing to Mumbai Indians, handing out a eight wicket defeat to Deccan Chargers Friday.
Daredvils also led the IPL points table briefly, but have now slipped to fourth place after losing their last two matches.
Daredevils lost a thriller to Chennai Super Kings and it was the absence of a fifth bowler that hurt them. Delhi’s four-pronged pace attack, a mixture of youth and experience led by Glenn McGrath, has performed exceedingly well. The attack defended the target of 187 against the Mumbai side, but the four overs from skipper Sehwag and Shoaib Malik cost them dear.
Sehwag admitted after the match that they will have to include a genuine fifth bowler in the side. Rajat Bhatia has performed that job in the previous matches and he must be back in the side against Royals.
Rajasthan Royals look the most balanced of the eight franchise teams and it is hard to find any chink in their armour. The team was written off even before the start of the tournament asno-hopers, but Shane Warne’s inspirational leadership has transformed the side into a formidable outfit.
Warne has never conceded an inch to the opposition in his long playing career and he has drilled the same spirit into the Rajasthan Royals. More importantly, Warne has come out with different plans for different opposing sides and they worked.
He sent Yusuf Pathan, who is a clean striker of the ball, to open the innings against Chargers and the result is there for everyone to see. Pathan blasted 68 runs off just 37 balls while Graeme Smith played the role of sheetanchor to perfection at the other end. And whenever the team is facing an opposition onslaught on the field, Warne, with the ball in his hand, has stood up to the challenge of setting things right.
Teams:
Virender Sehwag (captain), Rajat Bhatia, AB de Villiers, Shikhar Dhawan, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Pradeep Sangwan, Gautam Gambhir, Brett Geeves, Dinesh Karthik, Glenn McGrath, Farveez Maharoof, Shoaib Malik, Tejashwi Yadav, Yo Mahesh, Mithun Manhas, Amit Mishra, Mohammad Asif Yogesh Nagar, Manoj Tiwary, Mayank Tehlan
Shane Warne (captain), Aditya Angle, Swapnil Asnodkar, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammad Kaif, Kamran Akmal (wicket-keeper), Sumit Khatri, Taruwar Kohli, Mahesh Rawat, Darren Lehmann, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Parag More, Morne Morkel, Pankaj Singh, Munaf Patel, Niraj Patel, Yusuf Pathan, Anup Revandkar, Jaydev Shah, Graeme Smith, Sohail Tanvir Siddharth Trivedi, Shane Watson, Younus Khan, Justin Langer, Dinesh Salunke.