Inconsistent Punjab Take on Delhi in Crucial Match

New Delhi: Team Delhi is sitting pretty on their lofty perch atop the points table while a mad scramble for IPL playoff berths has begun in right earnest.

Their next opponents at the Ferozeshah Kotla on Tuesday are Punjab, who might be down at seventh in the table with 14 points from 13 games but still have an outside chance of progressing to the last four.

The fifth edition of the League has been a roller-coaster ride for Punjab who did their campaign no harm by pulling off a stunning win over Hyderabad on Sunday night.

One of their biggest strengths has been the performance of the local talent, which once again came to the fore on Sunday. This time the hero was little known 21-year-old Gurkeerat Singh, who managed to finish off Hyderabad with ease even when 16 runs were needed off the final over.

Their other success story has, of course, been opener Mandeep Singh, their top-scorer in this competition so far with 387 runs at a strike-rate of 125.6. With these youngsters coming through, Punjab haven't missed the services of inspirational skipper Adam Gilchrist, who has missed most of the tournament with a hamstring injury.

The addition of Pakistan-import Azhar Mahmood has beefed up the side. The T20 wanderer has added his wealth of experience to the outfit especially in the bowling department. Delhi, on the other hand, have relied heavily on the firepower at the top.

Most of their success has centered around the willows of Virender Sehwag and Kevin Pietersen. The latter's absence has left a gaping hole in the middle with both Mahela Jayawardene and Ross Taylor still struggling to get into their groove.

David Warner might have made an immediate impact with his century last week against Hyderabad but he remains in the Sehwag mould. The Delhi skipper's form also has hit rough water after a world-record run of five successive fifties.

Teams from

Delhi Daredevils: Virender Sehwag (captain), Mahela Jayawardene, David Warner, Naman Ojha (wk), Irfan Pathan, Yogesh Nagar, Umesh Yadav, Puneet Bisht, Robin Bist, Shahbaz Nadeem, Venugopal Rao, Vikas Mishra, Zafir Patel, Sunny Gupta, Tejashwi Yadav, Aavishkar Salvi, Kuldeep Raval, Manpreet Juneja, Pawan Negi, Prashant Naik, Aaron Finch, Andre Russell, Doug Bracewell, Glenn Maxwell, Gulam Bodi, Morne Morkel, Ajit Agarkar, Roelf van der Merwe.

Kings XI Punjab: Adam Gilchrist (captain & wk), Bipul Sharma, Paras Dogra, Harmeet Singh, Siddharth Chitnis, Love Ablish, Piyush Chawla, Amit Yadav, Parvinder Awana, Stuart Broad, Azhar Mahmood, Bhargav Bhatt, Ryan Harris, Vikramjeet Malik, Paul Valthaty, Sunny Singh, Shalabh Srivastava, Rajagopal Sathish, Nitin Saini (wk), Nathan Rimmington, Abhishek Nayar, David Miller, Mandeep Singh, James Faulkner, Praveen Kumar, Shaun Marsh, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Ramesh Powar.

Stats and trivia

• Kings XI's win over Chargers was their second highest chase in the IPL and the seventh overall.
• Marsh has been part of 22 Kings XI wins, in which he has scored 994 runs at an average of 62.12. Sehwag has scored 1266 in 34 Daredevils wins.

Match facts
Tuesday May 15, 2012 (day/night)
Start time 2000 local (1430 GMT)