IPL 2014: Fantasy Guru - Imran Tahir and Praveen Kumar come with plenty to add to both IPL and fantasy teams

If you think that you have started a little too late for the official IPL Fantasy League 2014, you can always play this alternative version of fantasy cricket where you can win cash prizes daily - SportskeedaFantasyLeague. The next round has two matches featuring four teams: Delhi Daredevils, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings.

In this type of fantasy cricket, while assembling your playing 11 for the two matches, make sure you don’t miss out on players like Quinton de Kock, Lokesh Rahul, Praveen Kumar, Ben Hilfenhaus and Imran Tahir who could prove to be the differential at a comparatively lower rate. While you can play for free, if you choose to play with an entry fee to Rs 35, you can win Rs 300. You can pay upto Rs 1,150 and win Rs 10,000 in cash for every round.

Disclaimer: The article doesn’t account for Bailey blunders (in general, the captaincy abilities these days). Although the Fantasy Guru takes into account the captaincy skills of the captains in concern, they continue to scale higher levels of ridiculousness, which necessitates the need for the disclaimer.

Delhi Daredevils vs. Sunrisers Hyderabad:

Guru’s team for the DD vs. SRH match

Scenario 1: (No Imran Tahir)

Transfers made – 0; Transfers remaining – 36

Karn Sharma in – Pravin Tambe outCaptain – Shikhar Dhawan/David Warner

Scenario 2: (Imran Tahir in – Scenario 1 + 1 substitution)

Imran Tahir in – David Miller out (Imran Tahir not yet included in the list of players)Captain – Imran Tahir

The most obvious pick from the Delhi Daredevils side would be JP Duminy. However, if I take him now, I will have to throw him out before he plays his second match. With the Daredevils and Duminy stubborn in sticking to the No. 5 position, I don’t want to waste a transfer on him.

The real Kevin Pietersen can turn up any time soon, but it is a gamble my fantasy team can’t afford to take at this point of time. Dinesh Karthik is a hit and miss type of a player to be trusted upon when the Daredevils don’t play their second match any sooner.

Having packed my team with batsmen from Sunrisers Hyderabad, I really hope Imran Tahir doesn’t play tomorrow. The wily leg-spinner has shown his ability to pick wickets on flat decks, and, given Aaron Finch and David Warner’s inability to play spinners, he would go full throttle against the Sunrisers’ batsmen. He has got that extra bit of ‘Oomph factor’, as Shane Warne would like to call it, about him, and it helps to get that zip on these pitches.

Should you have Tahir in your team, then? Highly tempting, so I would say ‘yes’. Transfer out David Miller in that case. Miller’s next fixture is against Kolkata Knight Riders; Although it is a flat deck, him coming in will coincide with Sunil Narine bowling his majority of the overs. Despite Cuttack being a placid strip, it is never a gamble worth taking. Also, Miller next plays Sunrisers’ at Hyderabad, a rank turner.

The only way the South African stalwart can score against the Knight Riders is if Virender Sehwag and Glenn Maxwell draw Gautam Gambhir out of his comfort zone and make him bowl the KKR captain’s trump card upfront. It will give Miller a free license against lesser threatening bowlers down the order.

I don’t see the need for any other player from these two teams for this fixture.

Uncapped player pick:

Lokesh Rahul is the best uncapped player in contention for a spot from this match. Batting at No. 3, he could easily produce a 35-ball 40 against a weak Daredevils bowling attack. I already have him in my team. So, I bring in the next best bet Karn Sharma, as well. The Railways leggie has been in prime touch and could come in handy. Although Karn cannot be expected to get great points, I can’t employ the uncapped player trick here, as the Chennai Super Kings’ and Mumbai Indians’ players don’t look promising, as well. Hence I don’t find an alternative but to pick the leg-spinner.

Siddarth Kaul is an exciting addition to the team, but the way he was used in his last match was shocking to say the least. His strength lies in his ability to swing the new ball; what good will he be if he is only given 1 over in the Powerplay?

Chennai Super Kings vs. Mumbai Indians:

Guru’s team for the CSK vs. MI match

Scenario 1: (Praveen Kumar in)

Transfers made – 2; Transfers remaining – 34

Rohit Sharma in – Shikhar Dhawan outPraveen Kumar in – David Warner out (Praveen Kumar not yet included in the list of players)Ishwar Pandey in – Karn Sharma outCaptain – Suresh Raina/Rohit Sharma

Scenario 2: (No Praveen Kumar)

Brendon McCullum in – David Warner out Rohit Sharma in – Shikhar Dhawan outIshwar Pandey in – Karn Sharma outCaptain – Brendon McCullum/Suresh Raina/Rohit Sharma

The first pick for this match should be Rohit Sharma. There is absolutely no hindrances whatsoever in him making it big against the Super Kings, more so when you consider the woeful death bowling unit the opposition possesses.

While Dwayne Smith and Brendon McCullum look solid to give Man-of-the-Match performances, Mumbai can stop them both by playing Praveen Kumar. There is no substitute to quality swing bowling, and, with the match being played at night, the Uttar Pradesh medium pace bowler can swing the opposition top order out.

Although if Praveen doesn’t get the nod, bring in one of the openers into the team; I choose to go in with Brendon McCullum due to his superior ability in playing Lasith Malinga.

With Pragyan Ojha not in the team and out of form, Mumbai Indians have nothing in them to stop the opening duo in the absence of Praveen. Lasith Malinga will not be a threat when you don’t try to attack him, and the CSK openers are smart enough to know that. While Dwayne has to defend him out, McCullum has the ability to take on Malinga.

The logic here being if Praveen plays, he would make McCullum and Dwayne take unwarranted risks even if he doesn’t get them out.

So should you pick Praveen Kumar? Well, why not when he plays his second match relatively sooner? The only condition being he shouldn’t cost more than 950,000.

Malinga will never get into my team if he plays against the Chennai Super Kings. The CSK top 5 know the art of playing the ‘Slinga’. Harbhajan is in some touch, but being an off-spinner doesn’t stand him in good stead against the openers who love the ball coming in to them.

Kieron Pollard can feast on this bowling attack, but will he get enough deliveries? I doubt it. Faf du Plessis and MS Dhoni bat too low to disturb my fantasy team combination, as well.

Uncapped player pick:

Ishwar Pandey gets the nod ahead of Jasprit Bumrah, Pawan Suyal and CM Gautam. Ishwar bowls to a susceptible top 3, while Bumrah and Suyal are up against an in-form top 3. Gautam should be extremely fortunate to get through what should be a probing spell of swing bowling from Ben Hilfenhaus and his Indian counterparts.

Kings X1 Punjab vs. Kolkata Knight Riders:

Guru’s team for the KKR vs. KXIP match

Transfers made – 1; Transfers remaining – 33

Sunil Narine in – David Warner/Brendon McCullum/Aaron Finch out (in that order)Pravin Tambe in – Ishwar Pandey outCaptain – Sunil Narine/Glenn Maxwell

Jacques Kallis bats at 4, which rules him out straightaway. Shakib Al Hasan will not get enough purchase on that flat deck. The opening pair of Kolkata Knight Riders – Robin Uthappa and Gautam Gambhir – despite being in good form don’t look like getting past Sandeep Sharma and Mitchell Johnson. The Cuttack deck provided good carry, which means Johnson will continue to bother Gambhir.

With Maxwell in already and the issues with Miller discussed, the only other player who is worth contemplating about is Narine. Maxwell would want to prove a point and, in the process, can get foxed by the West Indian mystery spinner. If he does that, the rest of the unit barring Virender Sehwag will have no answer to Sunil Narine’s mastery. If Sehwag gets dismissed by a new ball bowler, things can only get worse. So it all comes down to whether or not Maxwell sees through Narine.

It wouldn’t do any harm to have Narine in the team even at the cost of the transfer, so I get him in.

Uncapped player pick:

The match is being played on a flat deck, so banking on the Kings X1 spinners won’t be the ideal way to go. On the other hand, Mandeep Singh and Manish Pandey look good to give you a 40-ball 50. The batsmen should be extremely silly to give away wickets to the KXIP spinners in Akshar Patel and Shivam Sharma. I will, however, use the uncapped player trick and bring in Pravin Tambe for the next match.

Royal Challengers Bangalore vs. Rajasthan Royals:

Guru’s team for the RCB vs. RR match

Transfers made – 2; Transfers remaining – 31

David Miller out – Ajinkya Rahane inSunil Narine out – Shane Watson inLokesh Rahul out – Sanju Samson inCaptain – Shane Watson

With Rajasthan Royals playing 2 matches in a 3-match round, getting in Ajinkya Rahane and Shane Watson into the team is a no-brainer. James Faulkner is another entry that interests me. Faulkner looks like he has found his lost touch back and is mainly employed at the death, which more often than not translates to wickets. However, I choose to keep him out, as he is up against some of the finest hitters that the IPL has ever seen in Dhoni, McCullum, Smith, Raina, Gayle, De Villiers and Kohli.

Keeping Gayle out for 3 consecutive times has come off quite well. It could sound ostentatious: he remains out of my team, again. I have previously explained my reasons to have him out, and it will be no different now. I see Kane Richardson as the one who is capable of nailing the big West Indian this time. Even if he doesn’t, the support cast of Watson and Faulkner are adept in getting the better of him. The pitch, quite surprisingly, has been offering considerable assistance to the spinners, and that brings Pravin Tambe into the scene, as well.

AB de Villiers has been getting more than enough deliveries as a result of Virat Kohli’s failures, but that has its drawback, too. He has to take more chances than he would actually like to and will end up giving his wicket away. The ideal scenario for De Villiers to click is Kohli scoring as well as he can. Till then, De Villiers will continue to stay out.

Uncapped player pick:

On a good deck, I will prefer Sanju Samson over Karun Nair, as the former gives points for wicket-keeping, too. I already have Yuzvendra Chahal and Pravin Tambe in my team. Rajat Bhatia isn’t as consistent as Tambe and stands good chances of being hit around for plenty in a small ground.