The VIVO IPL 2016 is on the verge of reaching the half-way stage as Delhi Daredevils and Kolkata Knight Riders go head-to-head in the tournament's 26th match at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in Delhi on Saturday. The KKR side have been in terrific form so far but received a setback after losing to Mumbai Indians in their previous game. Delhi have won 3 out of 5 matches and the tally could have been 4 had they not lost by just 1 run to Gujarat Lions in their last match. It is going to be a tough fight between two teams who are looking to push for a spot in the playoffs and the spectators at the Kotla could get their money's worth.
Here's how the Delhi Daredevils will predictably line up for the match:
Batting
Delhi's batting continues to be a bit of an issue for them in this year's IPL. Opener Quinton de Kock was firing at the start of the tournament but seems to have fizzled out a little in the last few matches. The southpaw has scored 198 runs at an average of nearly 50; however, he will need to be more consistent in order to boost his team's chances.
The young Indian batting brigade of the Delhi Daredevils which includes the likes of Sanju Samson, Karun Nair and Shreyas Iyer has failed to make the desired impact with only Samson having made a notable contribution or two. Indian Under-19 cricketer Rishabh Pant was brought in for the previous match and played a few good shots before perishing on 20.
JP Duminy looks to be in good form for the Daredevils as he has scored 104 runs in just 3 innings. The DD batsmen need to fire as a unit to give momentum to the team's campaign in the 2016 IPL.
All-rounders
At least one of the Daredevils' all-rounders has finally come good for them in the form of Chris Morris. The lanky South African smashed a 32-ball 82 to nearly take his team across the line in the match against GL and had also picked up 2 wickets prior to that including the scalp of Brendon McCullum.
Pawan Negi has been struggling in the IPL so far and did not have much of a role to play in the match against Gujarat. Delhi will want Negi to live up to his heavy price tag in order to add more zing to their performance.
Bowling
The DD bowling attack has been quite a mixed bag in the 9th edition of the IPL. The pacers have conceded way too many runs, especially during the powerplay overs. Morris has been the only exception with 4 wickets in 5 matches and an economy rate of 6.55 thus far. Skipper Zaheer Khan has been a major disappointment giving way his runs at 9.13 per over.
The spinners, on the other hand, have performed quite remarkably for the Daredevils. While Amit Mishra is their leading wicket-taker with a tally of 7 wickets, Imran Tahir also came good in the match against the Lions and recorded figures of 3 for 24 from his 4 overs. A combined effort will be required from the Delhi Daredevils bowlers to keep their campaign on track.
Probable Playing XI
Quinton de Kock (wk), Mayank Agarwal, Sanju Samson, JP Duminy, Karun Nair, Rishabh Pant, Chris Morris, Shahbaz Nadeem, Amit Mishra, Zaheer Khan (c), Imran Tahir.
Click on NEXT to continue reading probable XI for Mumbai Indians:
The Kolkata Knight Riders will take on the Delhi Daredevils in the 26th match of the VIVO IPL 2016 at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in Delhi on Saturday. KKR have easily been among the best teams in the tournament so far with 4 victories from 6 matches and are placed second on the points table despite losing their last game to the Mumbai Indians. The Daredevils have also been good but their performance has been a little inconsistent as they have won 3 matches and lost 2. The two teams have met previously this season at the Eden Gardens where the Kolkata team brushed aside Delhi by a margin of 9 wickets. We can expect that the upcoming DD-KKR encounter will not be as one-sided as the first one.
Let's take a closer look at the line-up that may play for the Kolkata Knight Riders:
Batting
The KKR batting in this edition of the IPL has primarily revolved around their in-form openers, skipper Gautam Gambhir and Robin Uthappa. Together, they have scored a major share of the team's runs with Gambhir having a tally of 296 runs and Uthappa getting 170. Although Kolkata are missing out on Manish Pandey's presence due to illness, Suryakumar Yadav has made up for it to some extent.
Yusuf Pathan has also been scoring quick runs towards the end to provide the innings momentum. However, there is nothing much to the Knight Riders' batting aside from these players. BBL star Chris Lynn failed to make an impact with the bat in his first match this year whereas Shakib Al Hasan has been struggling to get bat to ball.
The middle order will need to come good for the Kolkata Knight Riders if they want to continue their impressive run in the tournament.
All-rounders
The all-rounders have been quite a disappointment for Kolkata in the 2016 season of the IPL. Both Shakib and Russell have performed decently with the ball; however, they have been completely off-colour when it comes to batting. The latter has still played a couple of brisk knocks but the Bangladeshi all-rounder has not done well at all.
Pathan's all-round skills are not being put to use by skipper Gambhir despite him having picked up a wicket in his only over this season. KKR will require a solid effort from the all-rounders in the upcoming matches to hang on to their position in the top half of the table.
Bowling
Barring a couple of games, the Knight Riders bowling unit has put up a great showing in the 9th edition of the IPL. Nearly all their bowlers have been among the wickets with Umesh Yadav picking 6 to be KKR's leading wicket-taker. Sunil Narine has made a brilliant comeback to the side with 5 wickets in 4 matches while Russell has also picked up the same number of wickets.
Piyush Chawla and Morne Morkel have claimed 4 wickets each whereas benched spinner Brad Hogg also grabbed 3 wickets in the 2 matches he has played. Bowling is certainly not on the list of issues Kolkata Knight Riders are facing this year but the bowlers need to remain consistent for them in the matches to come.
Probable Playing XI
Gautam Gambhir (c), Robin Uthappa (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Sheldon Jackson, Chris Lynn, Yusuf Pathan, Andre Russell, Piyush Chawla, Sunil Narine, Umesh Yadav, Morne Morkel.
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