DD vs DC : Resurgent Delhi Daredevils have Deccan Chargers in sight

Delhi Daredevils got a new lease of life in the Indian Premier league (IPL) with a morale- boosting win over Pune Warriors on Sunday and are now charged up against Deccan Chargers who have the monkey off their back, finally, with their first victory at home this season. The Daredevils got their campaign on track with a superb run- chase against Pune that will surely keep their detractors at bay, at least for some time.

On Tuesday, at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground, they face Deccan Chargers, who finally won a match at home after three seasons but apart from their sole win against the Royal Challengers Bangalore, the Hyderabad outfit hasn’t looked very convincing.

But as the tournament has shown so far, none of the teams can be underestimated and every side now has a win against its name. Delhi’s floundering batting finally came good against Pune when they chased down an imposing score of 187 on Sunday. Openers Virender Sehwag and David Warner will again shoulder a majority of home expectations while Venugopal Rao’s form has come as another major boost for the side.

But the worrying aspect for the Daredevils would be the lack of consistent performance and bowling would be another area where the team needs to pull up its socks. Irfan Pathan is yet to fire and so far, he has failed to justify the millions of dollars that were spent on him by the franchise owner.

Apart from South African Morne Morkel none of the Delhi bowlers have looked penetrative and the domestic players haven’t been too impressive. Umesh Yadav and Ashoke Dinda haven’t been able to hit the top gear and with pacemen Ajit Agarkar and Varun Aaron waiting in the wings for their first matches, Delhi have the option to try the untested combo.

Morkel, who missed the last match on Sunday, looks to have recovered from the injury he sustained and did bowl at the nets during the team’s training session on Monday evening. But a final call on his availability will be taken only before the match.

All- rounder James Hopes, in all probability, is likely to retain his place ahead of Matthew Wade. For most of the teams, relatively unknown players from India’s domestic circuit have come good but for Delhi there hasn’t been any such player.

For Deccan Chargers, the going has been tough as well and they have won just one of their four matches. The team has some big names with captain Kumar Sangakkara being the most prominent of them all.

JP Duminy, Shikhar Dhawan and Bharat Chipli have had a decent run while the Deccan have a good bowling line- up with Dale Steyn leading their pace attack.

Besides, the Chargers also have the spinners like Amit Mishra and Pragyan Ojha who can exploit the Kotla wicket that is known for its slow and low nature. Despite the presence of good players, the 2009 champions haven’t been found a footing in the tournament. A major reason for their not- so- impressive start in the event is that the players haven’t fired in unison.

All- rounder Cameron White hasn’t had a game yet for the Chargers and it remains to be seen if the Australian finds a place in the playing XI against the Daredevils.

Surely going by their track record, Daredevils start as favourites against a struggling Deccan Chargers. But as the tournament has seen so far shown, no team can be taken lightly and a lot of team have paid heavy price for being complacent.

Daredevils are one of the prime examples of that when their under- fire batting went on to bring the high- flying Pune Warriors down to earth. But Deccan would certainly not be pushovers, especially against the Delhi side that has just Warner and Sehwag from their previous teams.