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Rajasthan Royals v Delhi Daredevils, IPL, Jaipur

Delhi attempt to breach the Jaipur fortress

The Preview by George Binoy

May 9, 2008

Match facts

Sunday, May 11, 2008
Start time 20.00 (local), 14.30 (GMT)

Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath will be leading their respective bowling attacks, against each other © Getty Images

The Big Picture

As the Indian Premier League enters its second half, the matches hold more importance for the teams in the bottom half of the points table. The Rajasthan Royals are at the top of the league, and know that another couple of wins will virtually cement a semi-final berth. Delhi, on the other hand, are fourth and a defeat in Jaipur will give Kolkata and Mumbai a chance to draw level with them.

Shane Warne's men haven't lost a game at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium, winning all four of their matches there. They seem to have developed successful formula: win the toss and field, restrict the opposition with their versatile bowling attack, and chase down targets at a comfortable pace. Rajasthan won all three games in which Warne put the opposition in and also won the two matches in which they were asked to chase. Their only two defeats came when they batted first.

These teams played each other in their first match of the tournament and Delhi won that game by a massive nine-wicket margin. Delhi also prefer chasing, and have successfully gunned down three out of four targets. Their strength lies in their opening combinations: Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir with the bat, and Glenn McGrath and Mohammad Asif with the new ball. Sehwag and Gambhir are among the top three run-scorers in the tournament and Shikhar Dhawan, the No. 3 batsman, complements them well with an average of 51. The weakness lies in their middle order, where their international stars, Shoaib Malik and AB de Villiers, are yet to make a significant contribution. Dismiss the openers cheaply and negotiate McGrath with the new ball and half the battle is won against Delhi.

Tournament position

Rajasthan Royals P8, W6, L2, NRR +0.605
Delhi Daredevils P7, W4, L3, NRR +0.654

IPL form (last five matches)

Rajasthan Royals: WLWWW
Delhi Daredevils: LLWWL

Watch out for ...

Warne v Glenn McGrath. Warne took 0 for 16 off two overs in the previous match between Rajasthan and Delhi. McGrath took 1 for 21 off four overs.

Sohail Tanvir v Delhi's openers. Tanvir has a strike-rate of 14.3 and could pose a challenge for Sehwag and Gambhir.

Swanpil Asnodkar's impish stroke-play has been one of Rajasthan's highlights and, if he plays, will his bold approach pay off against the wiles of McGrath and Asif?

Team news

Rajasthan did not play Asnodkar against the Deccan Chargers, presumably to give Niraj Patel a chance. Patel, however, didn't get a chance to bat and Rajasthan might give him another go unless they want Asnodkar back at the top against Delhi's potent bowling attack.

Rajasthan Royals (probable): 1 Graeme Smith, 2 Yusuf Pathan, 3 Mohammad Kaif, 4 Shane Watson, 5 Niraj Patel, 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 Shane Warne (capt), 8 Mahesh Rawat (wk), 9 Sohail Tanvir, 10 Siddharth Trivedi, 11 Munaf Patel.

Sehwag said after the last-ball defeat to Chennai that they missed a fifth bowler and hinted that Delhi may field a specialist spinner for their next game. Amit Mishra, the legspinner, could be that choice and, if he were to play, it would mean that Manoj Tiwary sits out once again. Delhi do have another option they haven't explored, that of making de Villiers keep wicket and benching Karthik, who has scored 60 runs in four innings.

Delhi Daredevils (probable): 1 Virender Sehwag (capt), 2 Gautam Gambhir, 3 Shikhar Dhawan, 4 AB de Villiers, 5 Shoaib Malik, 6 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 7 Amit Mishra, 8 V Yomahesh, 9 Glenn McGrath, 10 Mohammad Asif, 11 Pradeep Sangwan.

Stats and trivia

Delhi's top-order - Sehwag, Gambhir and Dhawan - have scored 781 runs between them while Malik, de Villiers, and Dinesh Karthik have scored a cumulative of 158 in 11 innings.

Delhi's opening partnership averages 54.75 in wins and 19.67 in defeats.

Yusuf Pathan is proving to be Rajasthan's most destructive batsman with 231 runs, including three fifties, at a strike-rate of 180.46.

Quotes

"McGrath is still the best fast bowler in world in my opinion. We will assign someone the task of taking him. He still is a miser. Not more than 29 runs have been taken off him. We hope to take 30 off him tomorrow ."
Shane Warne, the Rajasthan captain, on his former Australian team-mate and leader of the Delhi attack McGrath.

George Binoy is a staff writer at Cricinfo

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