Daredevils hope to outwit Kings XI in first home game
Match facts
Kings XI Punjab v Delhi Daredevils
Delhi, April 15, 2017
Start time 2000 local (1430 GMT)
Head to head
Overall:
Kings XI Punjab have won ten out of the eighteen matches played between the two teams so far.
Last season:
Both teams defeated the visitors in the one-off games at home; Daredevils had elected to bowl on both occasions.
In the news
After piloting Daredevils to their biggest victory in the history of the IPL, Sanju Samson dedicated his maiden T20 ton to Rahul Dravid and all other members of the team that helped him come back from a disappointing campaign last season.
Daredevils batsman Shreyas Iyer has joined the squad and is available for selection, having missed the first two matches due to a bout of chickenpox. Considering Aditya Tare's lackluster performance at the top of the order in the two games, Iyer is likely to feature in the XI.
Despite having bowled only two overs against Kolkata Knight Riders on Thursday, Ishant Sharma's familiarity with conditions at his home ground is likely to hand him a game at the Feroz Shah Kotla.
Legspinner Amit Mishra has said while Daredevils possess a "better bowling attack" than Kings XI, they will need to out-think the opposition in terms of field placements and strategy to fare well in what is going to be there first home game this season.
The likely XIs
Kings XI Punjab 1 Hashim Amla, 2 Manan Vohra, 3 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 4 Glenn Maxwell (capt), 5 David Miller, 6 Marcus Stoinis, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Mohit Sharma, 9 Sandeep Sharma, 10 Varun Aaron, 11 Ishant Sharma
Delhi Daredevils 1 Aditya Tare/ Shreyas Iyer, 2 Sam Billings, 3 Karun Nair, 4 Sanju Samson, 5 Rishabh Pant (wk), 6 Chris Morris, 7 Corey Anderson, 8 Pat Cummins, 9 Amit Mishra, 10 Shahbaz Nadeem, 11 Zaheer Khan (capt)
Stats that matter
- Four out of the five bowlers Glenn Maxwell has been the most successful against in the IPL are spinners. While he has reaped the best average, 83.00, off R Ashwin, he boasts a strike rate of over 200 against legspinners Karn Sharma, Mishra and Piyush Chawla. Ironically, though, he has fallen to Mishra and Chawla thrice each, the most times to any bowler in IPL.
- With the best win-loss ratio, 1.333, among all venues last season, teams batting first won more games at the Feroz Shah Kotla than elsewhere. The average first-innings score last year was 160 and the hosts won three out of the five games.
- Sam Billings' average against spinners, 42.50, in the IPL is more than three times his average against fast bowlers. He has been out four times to pace and only twice to spin.
- In the two matches he has played so far this season, Rishabh Pant has been more prolific against left-arm bowlers, scoring 39 runs off the 17 balls he has faced against them, than against right-armers, against whom he has scored 49 off 41.
- Pace has been the preferred weapon of choice for bowlers at the Kotla and has yielded 63 wickets at an average of 21.47. By contrast, spin has accounted for 27 wickets at an average of 30.81
- Wriddhiman Saha has struggled to score against Mishra, having averaged 13 in five innings till date. David Miller, on the contrary, has an average of 35.00 against the legspinner in as many innings. When the two teams met at the venue last season, Mishra had claimed a four-for that included the scalps of Manan Vohra, Shaun Marsh, Miller and Maxwell.