Sehwag likely to return for Delhi Daredevils against Sunrisers Hyderabad | IPL 6 2013

Delhi Daredevils desperately need a victory to infuse life into their campaign, which has been derailed by three consecutive defeats, but they face a tricky and disciplined opponent in Sunrisers Hyderabad in their next Pepsi IPL clash, here on Friday.

A big relief for the beleaguered hosts is that opener Virender Sehwag is likely to play his first match this season, having missed all three clashes so far due to back spasm. Missing key players such as Kevin Pietersen and Jesse Ryder has already hurt the Delhi team badly and injury to Sehwag had only compounded their problems.

A fit and in-form Sehwag is just what Delhi needs to spring back to life after a dull start as it was the dashing right-hander’s batting prowess which led Delhi to the knockout stage last season. If Sehwag plays, struggling young batsman Unmukt Chand, who has twice dismissed for a first-ball duck, is likely to make way for the senior pro.

The non-performance of its foreign recruits, except for Australian David Warner, has also added to Delhi’s woes. Skipper Mahela Jayawardene began well with a fifty in the season-opener but his bat fell silent after that. Andre Russell and Johan Botha’s combined tally reads a mere 20 runs in the first two matches which led to their axing from the match against Mumbai Indians.

But that did not solve Delhi’s problems as Morne Morkel was hammered around the park by Mumbai’s batsmen and Jeevan Mendis also failed to make an impact. The Sri Lankan neither got a wicket nor did he score runs. Delhi badly needs its young guns to fire.

Naman Ojha, Manprit Juneja and Irfan Pathan will have to contribute more for the side to shake off the disappointment of three consecutive losses. Delhi Daredevils desperately need a victory to infuse life into their campaign, which has been derailed by three consecutive defeats, but they face a tricky and disciplined opponent in Sunrisers Hyderabad.

A big relief for the beleaguered hosts is that opener Virender Sehwag is likely to play his first match this season, having missed all three clashes so far due to back spasm. Missing key players such as Kevin Pietersen and Jesse Ryder has already hurt the Delhi team badly and injury to Sehwag had only compounded their problems.

A fit and in-form Sehwag is just what Delhi needs to spring back to life after a dull start as it was the dashing right-hander’s batting prowess which led Delhi to the knockout stage last season.

If Sehwag plays, struggling young batsman Unmukt Chand, who has twice dismissed for a first-ball duck, is likely to make way for the senior pro.

The non-performance of its foreign recruits, except for Australian David Warner, has also added to Delhi’s woes.

Skipper Mahela Jayawardene began well with a fifty in the season-opener but his bat fell silent after that.

Andre Russell and Johan Botha’s combined tally reads a mere 20 runs in the first two matches which led to their axing from the match against Mumbai Indians.

But that did not solve Delhi’s problems as Morne Morkel was hammered around the park by Mumbai’s batsmen and Jeevan Mendis also failed to make an impact. The Sri Lankan neither got a wicket nor did he score runs.

Delhi badly needs its young guns to fire. Naman Ojha, Manprit Juneja and Irfan Pathan will have to contribute more for the side to shake off the disappointment of three consecutive losses.

Delhi face a very disciplined team, which does not have many star players to flaunt but has a bunch of gritty cricketers who have made themselves count, be it young spinner Hanuma Vihari or Sri Lankan all rounder Thisara Perera.

Their batting line-up looks ordinary but Hyderabad have managed to put runs on the board when needed. Cameron White has batted exceptionally well in the previous two games.

If skipper Kumar Sangakkara and Parthiv Patel could do better in the top-order, it will be a big plus for the side.

Hyderabad’s strength is their bowling, led by world number one Dale Steyn. They have a decent attack, featuring local boy Ishant Sharma, Perera, Vihari and Amit Mishra.

The visitors would surely fancy their chances against a team, whose batsmen are struggling to find feet in the Twenty20 league.

The Teams (from)
Sunrisers Hyderabad: K Sangakkara (C), Akshat Reddy, Amit Mishra, Anand Rajan, Ankit Sharrma, Ashish Reddy, Biplab Samantray, Cameron White, Chris Lynn, Dale Steyn, Darren Sammy, DB Ravi Teja, Hanuma Vihari, Ishant Sharma, Nathan McCullum, Parthiv Patel, Prasant Padmanabhan, Quinton deKock, Sachin Rana, Shikhar Dhawan, Sudeep Tyagi, Thalaivan Sargunam, Thisara Perera and Veer Pratap Singh.

Delhi Daredevils: Mahela Jayawardene (C), Ajit Agarkar, Andre Russell, Arisht Singhvi, Ashish Nehra, C M Gautam, David Warner,Gulam Bodi, Irfan Pathan, Jeevan Mendis, Johan Botha, Kedar Jadhav, Manpreet Juneja, Naman Ojha, Pawan Negi, Roelof van-der Morwe, Royston Dias, Siddharth Kaul, Sujit Nayak, Shahbaz Nadeem Umesh Yadav, Unmukt Chand, Venugopal Rao, Virender Sehwag and Yogesh Nagar.

Losing streak is cause of concern for us says Delhi spinner Nadeem IPL 6 2013

As Delhi Daredevils slipped to their fourth successive defeat in the ongoing Pepsi Indian Premier League, left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem admitted that the team’s losing streak is a “cause of concern”.

“We lost four games and it is a case of concern. But T20 is a funny game, three out of the four games we fought hard and easily could have won them. We need to return to winning ways if we have to qualify for the knockout stage,” Nadeem, who took two for 17, told reporters at the post-match press conference here last night.

The Daredevils lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad by three wickets in a low-scoring affair.

Nadeem feels that the Delhi outfit need to get their act together quickly and come out with improved show in their remaining 12 matches.

“We have a good batting side but unfortunately we are not performing with the bat. But we have got the potential. We need to pull up our socks. I hope in the next couple of games you will see us doing well,” he insisted.

Even the return of Virender Sehwag, who missed the first three games due to a bout of back spasms, failed to inspire the Daredevils. Opting to bat, they could only post just 114 for eight, a score that the Sunrisers struggled to chase down but did it in the end with four balls to spare.

“Viru bhai (Sehwag) is a world class player. He was looking very positive today and we are just waiting for him to explode in the tournament,” Nadeem said. Nadeem is of the view that the track on offer at the Kotla last night was a slow one and any score around 140 would have been a winning total.

“The wicket was little on the slower side. It was little difficult for batsmen. 130-140 would have been a good score,” the left-arm spinner said.

Sunrisers leg-spinner Amit Mishra, who was adjudged player of the match for his one for 15 and unbeaten 14-ball 16 with the bat, said off late he has been working hard on his batting.

“I have been improving my batting for the last two years. I have been working very hard on my batting and it helped me here,” said Mishra.

“While chasing you need to keep yourself calm and cool. The pressure was there as wickets kept falling but I knew if I am there we will win,” he added.

Mishra too agreed that the wicket was slow but said it did not have any demons for batsmen.

“The wicket was slow but it was good for batting,” he said.

Sehwag's return a damp squib | IPL 6 2013

Virender Sehwag’s inclusion in the Delhi Daredevils squad against the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League (IPL) match here Friday raised expectations, but his return proved to be a damp squib.

Much was expected from the former Daredevils captain, but he was dismissed for a 10-ball 12, which included two boundaries.

Delhi had already lost explosive Australian opener David Warner, and with the fall of Sehwag there was a pin drop silence at the
Ferozeshah Kotla grounds.

The 34-year-old tried to play square off to Ishant Sharma’s bowling but edged the delivery to Cameron White at wideslip.
Sehwag missed the opening three matches, which Delhi lost, of the sixth edition of the IPL due to his back spasms.