Delhi, Pune look to avoid Wooden-Spoon (Preview)

For both these teams, the IPL-4 experience has been a forgettable one. After thirteen matches and seven weeks of grueling cricket, Delhi and Pune find themselves at the bottom of heap. They have had somewhat identical campaigns, losing nine out of thirteen matches, thus one last chance to take the number of wins to five. Plus, there is the ‘wooden spoon’ on the line, the loser in tomorrows match at the Feroz Shah Kotla would finish the tournament as the last placed team.

There is much more than just pride at stake. Delhi have been hit hard by the absence of star batsman and Captain Virendar Sehwag after he went for medical treatment; the stand-in man for him, James Hopes has not been an inspirational leader thus far as Delhi were crushed in both matches under his leadership. He would be looking to salvage something out of the last tie, even if it is a dead-rubber without any consequence for the teams. Also, Delhi can mend their dismal home record if they overcome Pune who have been equally woeful in the field if not more.

Talking about dismal performances, Pune have more than once demonstrated an unmatched ability to make decisions that make no sense on a cricket field. Why on earth does Yuvraj Singh, the man-of-the-tournament in the recent 2011 world cup, come out to bat with just very few overs left in the innings? Pune have made this monumental blunder for majority of their first season in the IPL. It is a baffling tactic especially when their batting has the propensity to combust in the middle overs. Even the return of ‘Dada’ hasn’t lifted the batting effort in three matches Sourav himself has looked rusty and scratchy.

It may be a battle between the ‘also-rans’ of the IPL-4, but for sure would be an intense cricket match given the fact that the winner would avoid the title of ‘weakest team’ in this year’s IPL.

DELHI

Players who can make impact…

James Hopes….The Australian all-rounder has been entrusted to lead the team in absence of Virendar Sehwag and has one last chance to notch up a win, he would like to lead with example and put in a match-winning effort.

Morne Morkel...In the first few matches, he was quite impressive with the bounce and movement but of late, the performance has nosedived. The South-African would surely try to sign-off on a bright note.

SQUAD

Aaron Finch, Aavishkar Salvi , Ajit Agarkar, Ajit Chandila, Andrew McDonald , Ashok Dinda , Colin Ingram, David Warner, Irfan Pathan, James Hopes (c), Matthew Wade (wk), Morne Morkel, Naman Ojha (wk), Prashant Naik, Rajesh Pawar, Robert Frylinck,Robin Bist, Roelof van der Merwe, Shahbaz Nadeem , Sridharan Sriram , Tejashwi Yadav, Travis Birt, Umesh Yadav, Unmukt Chand, Varun Aaron, Venugopal Rao, Vikas Mishra, Virender Sehwag (withdrawn player), Vivek Yadav, Yogesh Nagar.

PUNE

Players who can make impact

Yuvraj Singh….He is probably Pune’s best batsman and a devastating player who can win a match single-handedly. But, he bats at such a position that his talent is not fully utilized. Perhaps he needs to believe in his own abilities and come up the order to do the maximum damage.

Jesse Ryder….The burly left-hander’s performance this year hasn’t matched his abilities with the bat. Occasionally, he has shown what he is made of but has lacked consistency and application big time leading to the numbers that don’t justify his immense talent. With Pune’s campaign coming to a close, the Kiwi will try to make a lasting impression against strong Kolkata bowling lineup.

SQUAD

Yuvraj Singh (c) , Sourav Ganguly,A Jhunjhunwala,Alfonso Thomas,Angelo Mathews,Ashish Nehra,Bhuvneshwar Kumar,Callum Ferguson,Dheeraj Jadhav,Eklavya Dwivedi,Ganesh Gaikwad, Graeme Smith,Harpreet Singh,Harshad Khadiwale,Imtiyaz Ahmed,Jerome Taylor, Jesse Ryder,Kamran Khan,Manish Pandey,Mitchell Marsh,Mithun Manhas,Monish Mishra,Murali Kartik,Nathan McCullum,Rahul Sharma,Robin Uthappa,Sachin Rana,Shrikant Mundhe,Shrikant Wagh,Tim Paine (wk),Wayne Parnell