New Delhi 23 Apr: Delhi Daredevils will play their first home game of the 2018 season of Indian Premier League. Delhi Daredevils will host Kings XI Punjab at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium on Monday. Till now, Delhi has played five games away from home. They will also like to make a winning start at home and take two points from the game as they have not had good tournament so far. While Kings XI Punjab sit at the second position in the points table, Delhi are at the bottom place among eight teams. They have a single win in this season and this will be their sixth game. Kings XI have also played five games but have eight points, having won four games. The only loss for them was against RCB in Bangalore. Delhi will look to win a game and break their losing streak and move up in the table.
Bruised and battered after a string of defeats, Delhi Daredevils find themselves in an ‘oh-so-familiar’ situation as they seek home comfort against a Chris Gayle-inspired Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League. Without an iota of doubt, the Daredevils have been the least impressive of all teams in the past few seasons of the cash-rich extravaganza, only managing to finish at the bottom half of the pecking order. In the last two seasons, the Daredevils ended their campaign at sixth position, were a place down in 2015 and finished last the year before, in 2014. The story has been similar in the ongoing edition as they struggle with fours reverses from five outings to occupy the last place. Delhi’s bad run They were done in by the versatile AB de Villiers’ smashing knock last night and up next at the Feroz Shah Kotla, Daredevils will be up against the destructive Gayle, who has made a statement with two fifties and century, scoring those runs in his trademark style. Thanks to Gayle’s belligerence, Kings XI Punjab are firmly placed at the top of the order with four victories and a solitary defeat. Given the form they have shown in the previous encounters, Kings XI Punjab will fancy their chances to continue the momentum against an embattled Delhi Daredevils outfit. Delhi Daredevils’ only victory has come against Mumbai Indians when English opener Jason Roy and the dynamic Rishabh Pant fired. In fact, wicketkeeper Pant has been their best batsman this season with 223 runs from five games. Returning to his home city franchise, skipper Gautam Gambhir would look to get his scoring touch back, after a hugely successful stint at Kolkata Knight Riders. So is the case with the big-hitting Australian Glenn Maxwell, while Shreyas Iyer, who scored a brisk half century against RCB, would look to continue in same vein. Delhi’s bowling has been an issue with Mohammed Shami off colour. Trent Boult had decent figures in all the matches but likes of Shahbaz Nadeem, Mohammed Shami have flattered to deceive. The logic of playing Vijay Shankar is still not clear as the team management is not able to send him up the order for lack of power in his shots. Even more baffling is the fact that he has not been called upon to bowl in four of the five games. Teams (from): Delhi Daredevils: Gautam Gambhir (captain), Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, Chris Morris, Glenn Maxwell, Amit Mishra, Shahbaz Nadeem, Vijay Shankar, Rahul Tewatia, Mohammad Shami, Trent Boult, Colin Munro, Daniel Christian, Jason Roy, Naman Ojha, Prithvi Shaw, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Avesh Khan, Manjot Kalra Kings XI Punjab: KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Aaron Finch, Yuvraj Singh, Karun Nair, David Miller, Marcus Stoinis, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin (captain), AJ Tye, Mohit Sharma, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Chris Gayle.
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