Problem of plenty for Delhi Daredevils
For Delhi Daredevils, the good news is the non-availability of Gayle. Though he did not do too well in the tournament, he is a batsman who can single-handedly win a game, writes Glenn McGrath.
The news that everyone wants from the Delhi Daredevils camp is the progress made by Virender Sehwag who missed the last game through injury. While he is recovering well, it remains to be seen whether he will play today against the Kolkata Knight Riders.
We are not yet taking a call on Daniel Vettori, who missed out against Chennai because David Warner came in to replace Virender. Now that he has done well, we might struggle to field Vettori as we can't play more than four overseas players. It is a dicey situation because spinners have done well in Durban. We will see how the first game of the day pans out and then decide on our eleven.
Looking at our position at this stage, we are pretty comfortable. The loss against Chennai did hurt because we had the game in control. Unfortunately, some of the guys were slightly inexperienced and we fell well short.
We are playing the Kolkata Knight Riders for the first time. They have not really had a great time so far, and I am surprised to see a team with the talent of Chris Gayle, Sourav Ganguly, Brendon McCullum and Ishant Sharma, struggle.
One of the challenges of T20 cricket is starting well and keeping the momentum. However, when things are not going your way, there is no time to reassess, regroup and restart. I have played with John Buchanan for many years, and I wonder how he is taking this string of failures.
For Delhi, the good news is the non-availability of Gayle. Though he did not do too well in the tournament, he is a batsman who can single-handedly win a game. His absence might mean that Kolkata will have to reassess the combination of overseas players, and we might get to see more of the spin sensation Ajantha Mendis in the coming games.
However, I would think we have the goods to negotiate him since both Gautam Gambhir and Tillakaratne Dilshan have played him before. The performance of Dirk Nannes has been one of the keys to our success, and I expect he will do well against Kolkata. We are not complacent but there is a quiet confidence in the camp.
Gameplan
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