DD vs KTK Match 40 Preview

Match 38 May 2nd DD vs KTK Highlights IPL4

Chances even on a better Kotla wicket

Delhi Daredevils and Kochi Tuskers Kerala are the 2nd pair of teams playing back to back games. DD who have won the last game on batting brilliance of Sehwag will face KTK Team which is down with two big defeats against rival team today and Deccan Chargers. With fans choosing not to visit the stadium for both the teams, it will be even more important for both the teams to reunite their fan base with a win. Apart from not having much local players in both teams, their poor performance has also been the cause of fans’ dismay.

Sehwag top scorer for Delhi Daredevils with 323 runs has played the role of Match winner more convincingly than that of captain this season. Though Warner 2nd highest run getter along with Sehwag have often given good starts, its only when they carried foreword to longer innings Delhi has shown tendency to win. This excessive dependency on Delhi openers has cost them this situation where they have to win this game to avoid a situation of Do-or-Die. Sehwag has lead by example especially in later half of Delhi’s games. An innings of 80 on pitch which can barely be called a T20 one was nothing short of a classic preceded by 77 (36) against Kings XI. It remains to be seen if Delhi batsman will inspire themselves to play following he last game. Barring Venu Gopal Rao other batsman down the order have been in a terrible form with Finch, Naman Ojha and Nagar falling short of anything than can be called good contribution. Birt replacement for Finch has worked a bit with 20 (13) in last game and they will hope it will continue to be. James Hopes has helped the batting in couple of matches and Delhi would be take that back from him.

Kochi Tuskers Kerala who are also dependent of opening pair of Jayawardene and Mcullum have Ravindra Jadeja in  Middle order finishing or racing the scoreboard in initial games. With last 3 games that Kochi have played being the bowlers paradise, Kochi batsman would like to revive themselves on a a currently better Kotla wicket. Hodge though initially helpful along Klinger and Parthiv Patel would have to buck up if they wish to see a better result. A replacement for Klinger might be possible with Sri Lankan team mate of Mahela coming in. Past few games by the time it came to Jadeja’s hands to finish the game the asking rate was above 12 and he has no one with him to finish the business. Hodge especially who has been getting out cheaply will be careful today to finish it off or race it up with Jadeja,

Pitch: A new wicket made for today’s game is said to be exactly similar to the one made for DD vs KXIP game. It will have pace and movement for seamers but will still be a good wicket to bat on. The slowing down of the wicket in the next game vs KKR was attributed to the searing Delhi heat and the new pitch will not face that problem.

Its going to be interesting to see how consistent Morne Morkel and Sreesanth who has been very good in last few games will extract the movement from this pitch. Vinay Kumar and RP Singh show more promise than Irfan Pathan and Umesh Yadav (might be playing on Delhi wicket) but have to face the in-form Delhi openers intelligently. Its not going to be easy for young Delhi bowlers too if Captain Jayawardene and Mcullum start to attack on their day. Agarker also bowled good for Delhi last innings but that was on pitch that helped bowlers and remains to be seen if he follow it up with something similar. Murali who would play the Delhi game will like to the deceive the Delhi batsman with his turn. It may not be surprising to see to bowl early.

A good pitch and both teams being in lower half of the table and desperate to win set up a base for Great game. Lets sit-back and enjoy this encounter.

Some Interesting Statistics and Highlights of Kochi Tuskers Vs Delhi last game

CSK vs DC Match 38 Preview:

Highlights will be posted as soon as they are available !!

 

This Deccan chargers vs Chennai Super Kings game is “Biryani’ vs “Sambar” vs food patrons. Fight between “Hyderabad” and “Chennai” for city lovers and importantly it’s fight between and 5th and 6th placed Chennai super Kings and Deccan chargers to get into top 4.

Deccan Chargers need a win more desperately as they have played 1 game more than Chennai and won one game less. Loosing this would get them into do or die situation which they will definitely look to avoid. Both teams are high on confidence as CSK are coming here from back to back wins to Pune Warriors and Deccan from a resounding victory over Kochi Tuskers. However Chargers would have already noticed the strength of CSK at Chennai-their home ground 3 wins in 3 matches at home in IPL 4 till now.

For Deccan Chargers, Cameron white who added few runs last game will be crucial as Sangakkara needs solid support from one more consistent attacking batsman in building the innings. Return of form into Ishant Sharma is great news for Deccan who have been struggling with inconsistency in pace attack. Their spinners have been useful not going for too many runs in the middle of matches and picking few important wickets. Dale Steyn too was economical all through this tournament but did not pick too many wickets only till the last game. If Deccan’s bowling attack will click like last game then they definitely can pull it off from Chennai who’s having a long batting line-up but can falter if challenged. Barring few games Manpreet Gony,Shikhar Dhawan and Bharat Cipli have a point to prove in today’s match as they have not been really effecting the match results.

Cameron himself summed up in an interview about the how they look up to the Chennai match and about home strong chennai Read it here

Chennai on the other hand have seen good batting from Youngsers in Raina, Badrinath and Vijay. Hussey has played match winnings knocks too. However in match Pune we saw them slow down after wicket loss of  Mike Hussey in top order. Having a long batting line which has been tested completely will work good for Chennai. Stephen Fleming was quoted saying that his top 6 along with Anirudha Srikanth  and above mentioned players are best six top batsman of whole IPL.

Read what Stephen Fleming said here abut CSK and DC.

Return of Albie Morkel will strengthen CSK bowling attack. According to the coach the only replacement will be Albie Morkel playing in today XI. Bollinger and Southe have been a hit for Chennai. With Ashwin taking wickets at crucial moments and him along with Jakati slowing down the ball, Chennai’s bowling is looking good too. However the 5th bowler is the one DC will look to attack more on. Dhoni’s temperament in changing bowlers against strong but inconsistent batting side of DC will be really crucial.

On Paper CSK looks only a bit more stronger than DC. But the consistency of young batsman and playing at home in Chennai makes them have an edge against Deccan. It will be left to the brilliance of Ishant Sharma and Dale Steyn to make it an even contest.

My surprise picks for Today and Young Srikanth who after his first match innings has not contributed big and Bharath Cipli from Deccan who has told a similar Story.

So What’s it gonna be Chennai Sambar rice or Hyderabadi Biryani for Dinner ??

RR vs PW Match 37 Preview:

Pune Warriors and Rajasthan Royals have one thing in common. Both are young teams and have talented youngsters in them.

But another thing not common is that RR have come back from 3 match winning loosing streak with back-to-back wins against Kochi Tuskers and Mighty Mumbai Indians. While Pune warriors have just extended it even more to 5 matches. Playing 7 matches they have only won the initial 2 matches. So today its the Warriors vs Kings, battle between to contrasting sides.

Its ironical that the most expensive team in IPL is in the bottom and in a must win position to make to play-offs. However the way this team won their initial 2 matches shows that they are capable of playing much better game. Their confidence level which must be really down, can be helped by the Yuvraj Singh who has seen lows last 2 few years and come back with an awesome performance in World Cup.

Problem of the Pune Warriors has been that except Ryder and Yuvraj, all other batsman have looked out of touch. Uthappa has managed to score runs, but has not been able to contribute with long innings in spite of getting great starts. Graeme Smith’s unavailability due to Injury has left a big void to the upper middle order of warriors. Nathan Mcullum and Muthum Manshas have not been able to cover for him..Injury to South African batsman Graeme Smith has left a gap in the batting order which players like Mithun Manhas and Nathan McCullum have failed to fill.

Bowling has been decent for Pune with pacers Alphonoso Thomas and Jerome Taylor doing the trick initially while Murali Karthik and Rahul Sharma in latter part of game.

Rajasthan Royals back from a resounding victory will look to continue the winning row in this crucial phase of tournament. Their bowling looked terrific in the la st match along with batting was decent. With Mr. Smart: Shane Warne leading them, on their day RR can do the trick any team in IPL. Their characteristic has been to restrict or defending small totals to win. Their big foreign players in the tournament, Botha, Taylor and Watson have performed consistently contrasting to the today’s rival team.

Their young players like Menaria, Siddharth Trivedi and Amit Singh have also been really useful with at least 2 of them bowling important overs in each match.

It will be key to see if the Pressure on Pune Warriors can manage the pressure on them after loosing 5 matches. So its pressure vs confidence game today and what ever the result is, the fight going to be definitely interesting. Especially looking at the help slow bowlers got in last match on the same venue

Taile piece: Delhi Daredevils, Deccan chargers both down rock bottom of the tournament have come up in their 8th Match. Will Pune repeat this feat and make the points table more interesting ?

 

Teams Composition:
Pune Warriors:Jesse Ryder, Manish Pandey,  Harpreet Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Robin Uthappa, Mithun Manhas, Nathan McCullum, Murali Kartik, Rahul Sharma, Jerome Taylor. Alfonso Thomas,
Rajasthan Royals:
Shane Watson, Rahul Dravid, Ashok Menaria, Ross Taylor, Johan Botha, Ajinkya Rahane, Amit Singh, Dishant Yagnik, Sidhharth Trivedi, Stuart Binny,Shane Warne.

KTK vs DD Match Updates/Preview Match 35 IPL 4

 

Match Preview KTK vs DD 30th May

After overplaying 4 matches at home, and winning only game out of them, the Delhi team who face a danger of elimination will be more than desperate to win against Kochi Tuskers. Delhi have a breather of only 2 more games out of 8 and are going to same on the same Nehru stadium, Kochi pitch which saw a batting collapse in a match vs Deccan Chargers. Kochi Tusker’s have generated both winning and loosing streak in their campaign just 7 games old. They come in with 3 straight losses and Delhi with 2. The latest loss of devils was against Kolkata.

Batting has been a major cause of concern for both teams but Delhi more. They will continue to depend on Sehwag and Waner’s contribution as they are depending all along. Warner has been in decent form and Venugopal Rao chipped in with innings that can be called great for Delhi not so actually if they had a consistent batting line-up like the previous season. Other than these 3 other’s haven’t done anything substantial. At least as yet no one even looked to. James hopes has come for rescue once but remains to be seen if he will be consistent.

Bowling has been just a little less terrible because of Morne Morkel initially and James hopes has helped him a little in last 2 matches. Irfan’s performance with bowl in previous match against KKR must have give him confidence to believe that he can deliver. However he needs to do much better for Delhi to turn around things

The pitch at the Nehru Stadium will give him support as it looked like a bowler’s heaven when Tuskers were out for small total. That can go against them, with bowlers like Sreesanth and Vinay who can be very dangerous on such tracks. Delhi’s has got to know of their weakness quite a lot in past few games. They will only do different if they learn from the mistakes, especially the batsman.

Tuskers also will taken this as a golden opportunity against the seemingly weak Delhi to get out the loosing streak which are in. Their three wins were against Mu mbai Indians, Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings, were only against the favorites to win the tournament.

Both sides have strong opening batsman who can single handedly change the match irrespective of the pitch. While Sehwag and Warner form one of the most feared opening combinations, Kochi have Brendon McCullum and captain Mahela Jayawardene are no less dangerous. In fact complementing each other have been more consistent.

Delhi and Kochi looking for win desperately might put their best performance till now in IPL 4. And this makes this encounter both crucial and interesting.