New Delhi: A desperate Delhi Daredevils will have to learn from the mistakes made in the previous game against table-toppers Sunrisers Hyderabad when the two sides with contrasting campaigns meet in a re-match of the Indian Premier League, here on Thursday.
Languishing at the bottom of the table with three wins from 10 games, the Shreyas Iyer-led team will have to win on Thursday to have any chance of progressing further in the tournament.
They have looked a better unit ever since Iyer took over the captaincy from Gautam Gambhir but small mistakes at key moments have proved fatal for them. Courtesy a sublime 65 from the highly-talented Prithvi Shaw, Delhi put up a challenging 163 against Sunrisers in their away game at Hyderabad on May 5. But they were unable to defend 28 runs off the last two overs with the experienced Dan Christian and Trent Boult letting the team down.
Delhi could have won rather easily if they held on to the catches of Sunrisers opener Alex Hales and Yusuf Pathan, who eventually got his team over the line with a 12-ball 27.
Iyer admits that the same mistakes cannot be repeated against a strong Sunrisers, arguably the best bowling side in the tournament.
“It is very disappointing, to be honest. We were on top at one point. See, catches win matches, we’ve been practicing on our fielding, but drops happen when the pressure is high. We didn’t give up till the end,” Iyer had said post the seven-wicket loss.
However, the big positive for Delhi has been the form of captain Iyer and opener Shaw. The Feroz Shah Kotla has proved to be a high-scoring venue and both the in-form batsmen are expected to deliver in the do-or-die affair.
Iyer and Shaw’s confidence must be a notch higher too, having made the India and India A squads respectively for the UK series. Besides being named India A captain, Iyer was also picked in the India ODI squad.
Glenn Maxwell has been a big disappointment for Delhi and it remains to be seen if he gets another opportunity tomorrow or the hosts bring back Colin Munro to open with Shaw.
The Ricky Ponting-coached side played only one specialist spinner in Amit Mishra at Hyderabad and he did a much much better job than the pacers.
