After a period of 10 days since the start of Indian Premier League (IPL), Delhi Daredevils will finally play its first home game against Kings XI Punjab on a super Saturday, which will be a night affair.
The show will kick off with an opening ceremony, following the first game in the capital city.
Both the teams have had a mixed season till now. The Daredevils lost their first game, whereas, they overpowered Rising Pune Supergiant in the following contest. On the other hand, after winning the first two games, KXIP suffered a loss against Kolkata Knight Riders, which was the first time when they were playing an away game.
This just opened the biggest loophole in the team as and it will be interesting to see whether KXIP has the real strength to challenge the teams outside their territory or are they just a home bully?
Previous encounter –
Kings XI Punjab and Delhi Daredevils are the two teams which still exist since the inception of the league. These two sides have faced each other a total of 18 times in which Punjab possess an edge. They have stamped a win 10 times, whereas, Delhi lags behind and has eight wins.
Punjab will be looking to extend their winning lead against this team, whereas, Delhi will aim to minimise the small margin in the winning difference between the two teams.
Recent form in this season –
Delhi Daredevils – L, W
Kings XI Punjab – W, W, L
Talking points –
In Delhi Daredevils camp, the biggest talking point has been the way youngsters Rishabh Pant and Sanju Samson have carried the team till now. In the first game of the season, Pant alone steered the team to the doorstep of a win but the lack of support from the other end meant that Delhi could not cross the finishing line.
He continued his form in the second, as well where scored 31 in 22 deliveries to keep the team going.
Sanju Samson, in the second game of the season, shrugged off his poor domestic form and scored a century to drive the team to a score of 205. Samson took us to his early years in IPL when he was touted as next big thing in Indian cricket.
He also made to the Indian team after spending two seasons in IPL but struggled afterwards. This is again a chance for him to have a good IPL season and present his case for the future.
Delhi Daredevils predicted playing XI –
Sam Billings, Rishabh Pant, Sanju Samson, Karun Nair, Corey Anderson, Chris Morris, Jayant Yadav, Pat Cummins, Amit Mishra, Zaheer Khan (C), Shahbaz Nadeem.