IPL Fantasy League 2016 Tips: Rising Pune Supergiants vs Delhi Daredevils, Match 49

Transfers made – 2; Transfers remaining – 10

KL Rahul out – Quinton de Kock in

Shane Watson out – Bhuvneshwar Kumar in (Plan B enforced by Vizag shift)

Yuzvendra Chahal out – Murugan Ashwin in

Batting captain – Quinton de Kock

Bowling captain – Chris Morris

Batting captaincy options – Quinton de Kock, Ajinkya Rahane, Usman Khawaja

The pitch was a little slow last match, but in general it was good for batting. Add to it the size of the boundaries here, top batsmen can have fun hitting sixes. So, I wouldn’t be surprised if all three click today.

I can’t get Khawaja in, and since hardly anyone will have him at this point especially after the way he has performed so far, I don’t think it will affect me even if he scores a 100. The initial idea behind leaving Rahane out of my team was that he had his first of his three upcoming matches at Eden Gardens, a ground where he has historically failed, and the remaining two at Vizag, a deck that was proving to be a batsman's nightmare. The first one worked according to plan, with him failing again against KKR, but then Vizag dished out a new deck to mess up things.

I am, therefore, in a bit of dilemma now. Ideally, you would need both Rahane and De Kock, but since that would lead to too many wasted subs, I can’t do that. I am going in for the guy who could do the most damage – De Kock. That he keeps adds to his value. Ravichandran Ashwin and Adam Zampa could trouble him, but I expect the size of the boundaries to come to his rescue.

As far as Rahane is concerned, I can only hope he fails or plays a no-intention knock again. There is no logical reason to not have him.

Bowling captaincy options – Chris Morris, Nathan Coulter-Nile

The Daredevils have a lot of Indian batsmen up the order, so the Pune spinners should be negotiated without any issue. I don’t expect Mishra to play a big role on this deck either. That leaves me with only Morris and Coulter-Nile. Obvious choice here with Morris being a permanent member in the otherwise unpredictable Delhi side.

Nature of the deck – Little slow, but generally good for batting

Uncapped player order – Karun Nair (if he plays at 3), Mayank Agarwal, Shreyas Iyer, Rajat Bhatia, Murugan Ashwin, Shahbaz Nadeem

DD – Fantasy Clinchers

The Daredevils misread the deck and paid for it big time against Mumbai Indians. I don’t expect them to repeat the mistake again – Nathan Coulter-Nile and Mohammed Shami should replace Imran Tahir and Shahbaz Nadeem respectively. Mayank Agarwal is likely to be thrown out as well, but I hope it doesn’t happen, since he showed some promising signs in his last match even in his very short stay at the crease.

Other than that, I don’t see any other changes to the playing XI.

RPSG – Fantasy Clinchers

There is no point of Thisara Perera in any cricket team, but Dhoni’s obsession with him might just have his place again. Usman Khawaja’s reckless shots and atrocious running between the wickets should usually cost him his spot in a Dhoni-led side, but considering they don’t have any options, he might just hang on too.

Match call – With NCN in, DD should win it comfortably.