Saturday, 16 May 2009 16:56 - Aayush
Source: http://www.thesportscampus.com/20090516785/twenty-20/preview-rr-dd-17may
Bloemfontein will be hosting its second match which will also be its last of this season's IPL when the Rajasthan Royals lock horns with the Delhi Daredevils in a crucial encounter especially for the Royals. With six teams still in the fray for the semi final spots, every game is crucial from now on. Delhi might be sitting pretty at the top but they too would love to go into the semi finals on a winning run.
The situation is pretty easy for the Royals i.e. they have to win their remaining two games to confirm their semi spot. A win against Delhi will make them feel comfortable because their last game is against the struggling Kolkata Knight Riders. Delhi on the other hand are through to the last four but would love to beat the Royals after losing to them earlier in the tournament.
The Royals boast of a good batting line up with the experienced Graeme Smith opening the innings alongside their new batting star Rob Quiney who struck a brilliant half century in their last game against the Mumbai Indians. Rajasthan showed immense determination in clinching a win out of the jaws of defeat in their outing against Mumbai. The game was headed only one way until the final over which saw the Indians lose three wickets for one run. If there were any doubts over Shane Warne's desire to play and lead the side well they were all removed in the last game where he took to the field despite a pulled hamstring to lead his side to victory.
The Indian contingent of Ravindra Jadeja and Yusuf Pathan will always be a threat to any team due to their explosive batting and effective bowling. Add to it the talent of Naman Ojha whose hard hitting exploits have already been witnessed in the tournament, and we get a pretty strong Rajasthan batting order.
The bowling line up too possesses some great talent with Munaf Patel coming good in the last few games and Siddharth Trivedi showing great maturity whenever the ball is thrown to him. Jerome Botha made his debut in the last game and bowled beautifully in tandem with Warne. Warne was the star against Mumbai picking up 3-24 to swing the game in his teams favor. The leg spinner might have to do more of the same to restrict the Delhi batsmen.
The Daredevils on the other hand are the side to beat this tournament with their entire team clicking as a unit. But they received a rude jolt in their last game against the Kings XI Punjab where their batsmen could only muster 120. Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir are yet to really fire this season and would love to get going against the Royals. Dinesh Karthik has been a consistent performer after another good innings of 32 in the last game. AB DeVilliers will still be the key man for the Daredvils as he has shown great maturity in pacing his innings at the middle. The Daredevils would have to avoid complacency even though they are already through to the last four because any loss in momentum in this short version of cricket can lead to a chain of losses.
The bowling for Delhi is going great guns, and the bowlers almost helped their side defend their palty total thanks to an amazing spell from Ashish Nehra who gave away just 6 runs in his four overs. "We did not bat well (against the Kings XI Punjab), but our bowlers did a fantastic job and at one stage we almost won the game," said Daredevils captain Virender Sehwag. "Twenty20 is bad type of cricket because if you start losing you keep on losing, I don't want us to go that way."
Dirk Nannes was rested for the last game but his replacement Maharoof did not disappoint with figures of 2-29, he did however appear a bit rusty and gave away too many wides and no-balls at crucial stages. One might also see Glenn McGrath finally being given a chance to play, surely he is too good to be parked on the bench for an entire tournament.
Delhi have already played at this venue and would be well versed with the conditions on offer. They will hope that they can use that to their advantage and get a win against a team which defeated them comprehensively in their last contest. On that occasion, it was a belligerent Yusuf Pathan who struck an unbeaten 62 from just 30 balls to help his side chase down a target of 144 with consumate ease.
Delhi would have also not forgotten that it was Rajasthan who knocked them out of the semi-finals in last season's IPL, and would like nothing better than to return the favour.
