Already out of contention for a semifinal berth, the Delhi Daredevils would look to salvage some pride with a consolation win against the Cape Cobras in an inconsequential Champions League Twenty20 match at the Ferozeshah Kotla Stadium.
Delhi’s hope of making it to the final-four crashed yesterday after Gautam Gambhir’s men suffered an eight wicket loss to the Bangalore Royal Challengers.
The team will have to come up with a vastly improved performance against a confident Cape Cobras side who have already qualified for the semifinals having already collected four points after registering a comprehensive eight-wicket win over the Victorian Bushrangers.
Gambhir said after his side’s eight-wicket loss to Bangalore that they would look to give the Delhi fans something to cheer about, but he himself has been woefully out of form having scored just 18 runs from three outings in the tournament.
Except for Virender Sehwag, none of the batting stars in the Delhi line-up has done anything worthwhile. Sri Lankan Tillakaratne Dilshan and Englishman Owais Shah have failed to live up to expectations.
But more than batting, Delhi have been hit hard in the bowling department and sorely felt the absence of New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori.
Leg-spinner Amit Mishra was belted for 59 runs in his four overs by Bangalore yesterday. He is likely to be persisted with tomorrow as there are few slow bowling options for Delhi.
Except for Dirk Nannes, who yesterday bowled at 150 km per hour, none of the pacers has been consistent. Ashish Nehra has failed to carry on his fine form in the international circuit into the Champions League, while retired Australian great Glenn McGrath flopped yesterday after being among the wickets against Sri Lanka’s Wayamba.
For the Cape Cobras, on the other hand, everything is falling in place as the South African side have been able to come up with all-round performances consistently in the 12-team event.
The pace duo of Monde Zondeki and Rory Kleinveldt have forged an ominous new-ball pair to make batsmen’s life miserable, while young Jean-Paul Duminy and Andrew Puttick have backed the bowlers brilliantly with their bats. Zondeki scalped Brad Hodge and Rob Quiney in the very first over against Victoria and the Australian side could never really recover from that disaster during the match.
The Cobras have found a man for the occasion everytime, as Henry Davids proved with his match-winning knock against Victoria.
Teams:
Cape Cobras (From): Andrew Puttick(c), Herschelle Gibbs, Jean-Paul Duminy, Henry Davids, Derek Brand(w), Justin Lee Ontong, Sybrand Engelbrecht, Vernon Philander, Rory Kleinveldt, Monde Zondeki, Claude Henderson, Ryan Canning, Charl Langeveldt, Richard Levi, Francois Plaatjies, Stiann van Zyl
Delhi Daredevils (From): Gautam Gambhir(c), Virender Sehwag, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Dinesh Karthik(w), Owais Shah, Manoj Kumar Tiwary, Mithun Manhas, Rajat Bhatia, Amit Mishra, Dirk Nannes, Ashish Nehra, Aavishkar Salvi, Pradeep Sangwan, Yogesh Nagar, Glenn McGrath
