Delhi Daredevils v King's XI Punjab

Find Me A 100 Winner / Ed Hawkins / 18 April 2009 / Leave a Comment

Ed Hawkins is relishing the chance to get a look at the tournament favourites on Sunday but have they got the bowlers to back up their batsmen? Best Bet: Back G Gambhir to be top Delhi Daredevils runscorer.

Team news

Tournament favourites Delhi are expected to show why they are so short in the betting by unleashing their powerful new-look batting line-up for the first time. Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, David Warner, AB de Villiers and Paul Collingwood could all play. Glenn McGrath, a potential liability in the field at 40, and Farveez Maharoof are their only pace bowlers of note and much will depend on the world's top ranking Twenty20 twirler Daniel Vettori.

King's XI are severely weakened. New signing Jerome Taylor and Sreesanth are injured while Shaun Marsh, the IPL top runscorer last year, James Hopes and Brett Lee are with Australia.

Venue, pitch and conditions

Rain is forecast for Cape Town in the morning so we should be wise to the prospect of a reduced-overs contest. The toss will be crucial. In eight Twenty20 matches in the domestic competition at Newlands, six have been won by the side batting first.

Match odds

Thanks to the toss bias, it would be foolish to pile into a side before the flip. Otherwise, though, Delhi would be the bet because of the depleted nature of Punjab, who produced a shoddy performance against the Warrior in a warm-up. They dropped five catches and went down by 10 runs. Punjab won the two meetings between the sides last year by seven and four wickets respectively.

Top batsmen

Sehwag or Gambhir? That is the question that has to be answered to play the Delhi top-bat market. Sehwag top-scored five times last year and Gambhir four as the pair dominated the lists. Both openers, they are even more value than usual if the overs are chopped. Gambhir might be more solid in moist conditions, however. For Punjab, there is no Marsh who top scored five times. Kumar Sangakkara is a man to trust in his absence.

Featured market

With rain around, we have to expect runscoring to be tough. The average first-innings total in eight domestic twenty20 games at Newlands is 148 so the shrewd move would be to lay 300 match runs.