It’s now or never for Daredevils

Faced with a do-or-die situation, the inconsistent Delhi Daredevils will take on table-toppers Sunrisers Hyderabad in their penultimate Indian Premier League match here on Friday.

The Daredevils have failed to build a consistent winning winning momentum throughout the league and they are coming into Friday’s match with back-to-back defeats.

With 12 points from 12 games, Delhi need to win Friday’s match against a confident Sunrisers at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium. A loss on Friday will knock the Daredevils out of contention for a play-offs berth.

The Sunrisers, on the other hand, are virtually through to the play-offs and they are on top of the table with 16 points from 12 games.

Despite being assured of a place in the play-offs, the Sunrisers would look to continue their impressive form as the league reaches its business end.

Daredevils’ hopes for a play-offs berth suffered a huge jolt in their previous match when they lost to laggards Rising Pune Supergiants by 19 runs via the Duckworth-Lewis method. Their batting came a cropper in that match with only Karun Nair and Chris Morris making substantial contributions of 41 and 38, respectively.

Quinton de Kock has been the most consistent Daredevils batsman but he has not got a stable partner at the top.

Domestic players like Mayank Agarwal, Shreyas Iyer, Karun Nair, Sanju Samson, Rishab Pant and Pawan Negi have been inconsistent and that has hit the Daredevils batting badly.

Senior batman J.P. Duminy has not contributed much for the team with the bat and his sketchy form has affected the Daredevils rhythm.

Sunrisers have been the most consistent team in the tournament and except for the two consecutive defeats in the opening two matches, they have not lost back-to-back games in the league.

Their batting has been revolving around captain David Warner and his opening partner Shikhar Dhawan. Yuvraj Singh has also chipped in well so far after coming back from his injury lay-off.