TA Sekar, the DDD Manager, has said:
"Delhi Daredevils walk into the IPL with probably the most balanced combination."
This piqued my interest. Have I been lording over the other IPL teams with my support for Chennai? The answer is actually no. I am supporting the side that has an incredibly good chance of winning, but maybe I should second another team. Have an underdog side I'm supporting. Last year it was Kings XI Punjab, but they're looking shaky this year and besides, I'm just not in the mood to support them.
But Delhi. That's an interesting proposition.
They have Sehwag and Gambhir as openers. You can't fight with that, it's like the power couple of Indian openers.
Dilshan Tillakaratne. He did well last year.
AB de Villiers. Might convert Dilshan to Christianity.
Daniel Vettori. His glasses alone have the power to rock Sreesanth off his crazy horse.
Glenn McGrath, and he's said he'll be able to concentrate better on this year's IPL anyway.
And then there's the new players. The Delhi Daredevils picked up:
David Warner.
Dirk Nannes.
Those last two names are icing on the cake for T20.
And Andrew McDonald. I only mention this name because I reckon he'll be shit. His hair will attract cricket balls and tempt batsmen to thump balls at his head. However, I stand to be corrected if McDonald does turn out to do well.
They also secured Paul Collingwood and Owais Shah.
That's a pretty strong team.
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9 comments:
Since only four foreign players will be allowed in the final XI, it is the quality of the remaining seven Indians in the team which will make the difference. By this standard, I believe that your beloved CSK with internationals Dhoni, Balaji, Vijay and Badrinath plus inform domestic players like Abhinav Mukund and Suresh have a slight advantage over Delhi Daredevils with Internationals Sehwag, Gambhir, Nehra and Mishra. However, on pure form, the best Indian contingent in in Mumbai Indians - Tendulkar, Zaheer, Harbhajan and in form domestic players like Ajinkya Rahane, Pawar, Shikhar Dhawan etc.
Exactly. That's where a lot of the Rajasthan Royals' success came from last year. Besides the fact they all performed extremely well as a unit and cricket team, there were the Indian players giving excellent performances to complement the foreign players.
It'll be interesting to see how Delhi goes in the matches. I'll be watching with a more open eye than before.
Delhi has a good crop of Indian players too. Shikhar Dhawan, Dinesh Karthik, Rajat Bhatia are no mean players. And they have the powerhouse Indian openers who are ideally suited for T20. What more do you want? Thankfully Shoaib Malik is out. He was shit for the DDD last year.
P.S.: I live in Chennai and i am a CSK supporter too. CSK's bowling is the worst of the lot, which cost them last year's titel.
12th man, hasn't Suresh come on excellently in this season's domestic matches. Palani Amarnath was a bit of a let down though.
As for Shikhar Dhawan, he has been traded to Mumbai Indians for Nehra hasn't he?
Oh wow, I didn't know that. But yes he is going to play for the Mumbai Indians this time round.
12th man - Funny, that. Murali's performance in particular surprised me. Gony was pretty good, though, when he took off. But you're right. Hopefully Flintoff and Oram can add a little something to the bowling attack, but what if Freddie doesn't get the wickets? We know how it goes...
Also, in the first season, Albie took 17 wickets. Just had to sneak that in there...
I hope Mumbai Indians do well this time. Last yeah they lost their first four matches and I almost stopped watching the IPL.
I started watching only after Bhajji slapped Sreesanth. It was the best cricketing news of entire 2008 for me.
Me too. I had an absolute field day with that.
Or field year. I still mention it constantly.
@ 12th Man,
Chennai Super Kings Bowling may not be as bad as last year.. Balaji is fit and ready.. So can expect some intelligent bowling from him.. Sudeep Tyagi, who missed last year IPL because of injury would be playing.. UP's performance in bowling department in last year's Ranji matches were based on him.. Expect his inswinging balls to be lethal.... Gony is fit again.. With Flintoff, Oram & Morkel.. I don't see major problems in bowling this time around.. Also the assistant coach - Venkatesh Prasad would be of great help to this young Indian bowling lads..
They're definitely a stronger team in regard to bowling this year. Excellent, excellent, things will go my way.
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