With their campaign in the 2017 Indian Premier League (IPL) already done and dusted, Delhi Daredevils and Gujarat Lions will look to salvaging some pride when they clash in a league tie at the Green Park Stadium here on Wednesday.
Languishing at the penultimate spot in the standings, Delhi’s slimmest hopes of making the IPL play-offs were on Monday dashed when Sunrisers Hyderabad beat table-toppers Mumbai Indians by seven wickets.
With four wins and seven losses, Delhi have once again been hugely inconsistent this season. The 2012 semi-finalists had raised hopes of making it to the knockout stage after pulling off sensational wins over Sunrisers and Gujarat at the Ferozeshah Kotla.
But Zaheer Khan and his men could only blame themselves for the disastrous batting display, getting bowled for a mere 66 in their response to Mumbai’s target of 213 in their previous home game.
On the other hand, Gujarat are a notch above Delhi at the sixth spot with four wins and eight losses. Gujarat’s lack of depth in bowling have been the main reason for their doom this season.
For the two teams now, it would be a battle for not finishing last in the tournament. The last time both this teams faced each other, it was the Daredevils who rode on a phenomenal inning from Rishabh Pant to romp home by seven wickets at home.
Squads:
Delhi Daredevils: Zaheer Khan (Captain), Angelo Mathews, Corey Anderson, Kagiso Rabada, Pat Cummins, Ankit Bawne, Aditya Tare, Murugan Ashwin, Navdeep Saini, Shashank Singh, Mohammed Shami, Shahbaz Nadeem, Jayant Yadav, Amit Mishra, Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson, Chris Morris, Carlos Brathwaite, Karun Nair, Rishabh Pant (WK), Chama Milind, Khaleel Ahmed, Pratyush Singh, Marlon Samuels.
Gujarat Lions: Suresh Raina (Captain), Akashdeep Nath, Basil Thampi, Shubham Agarwal, Dwayne Smith, Chirag Suri, James Faulkner, Aaron Finch, Manpreet Gony, Ishan Kishan, Ravindra Jadeja, Shadab Jakati, Dinesh Karthik (WK), Dhaval Kulkarni, Praveen Kumar, Brandon McCullum, Pradeep Sangwan, Jason Roy, Jaydev Shah, Shelly Shaurya, Nathusingh, Tejas Baroka.
