NEW DELHI: Delhi Capitals will be desperate to break the home jinx as they welcome Kings XI Punjab to the Feroz Shah Kotla on Saturday. While the newly-rechristened side have won four out of five away from home, the slow nature of the Kotla track has undone all that hard work. The franchise from the capital has won only once out of four here. They are third on the table, followed by the visitors who are behind on run rate. Delhi had narrowly lost when the two sides last met.
Coach Ricky Ponting had said that teams need to win at least eight to be assured of a place in the last four. Delhi have a fantastic chance of making it to the play-offs for the first time since 2012, but the worrying fact for Shreyas Iyer’s side is that they will play three of their last five matches in Delhi.
The coach and skipper have regularly mentioned the pitch being too slow for their stroke-makers, but they will have to figure out a way to adapt. This point was touched upon by scouting head Pravin Amre post their 40-run loss to Mumbai Indians. “We have to find a way to win at home. That is the challenge now. We have managed to chase down 187 against KKR, which shows we are capable of batting on this track. We improved our batting during the powerplay but the middle overs are letting us down. We have to find that consistency.”
While both Ponting and mentor Sourav Ganguly have been in touch with the groundstaff in order to find a solution to the pitch problem, the fact remains that after a long season, it is unlikely that the track will improve now. And spin coach Samuel Badree says the best thing for them will be to just forget about the surface and focus on their own game.
“Yes, maybe we are thinking too much about the pitch. The away teams who do not have much time to analyse the surface are adjusting better. I think we just need to play good cricket on the day. It should just be a matter of us going out there and adjusting and adapting quickly, accessing what a good total is and making necessary changes in our approach.” Another point of concern will be selection. On a slow turner against Mumbai, the team management decided to play Keemo Paul over Sandeep Lamichhane, which meant they started with only two frontline spinners — Axar Patel and Amit Mishra. The opposition read the conditions better, employing the services of three spinners in the XI.
While Ponting and Amre explained that they wanted to be consistent in selection, Badree felt that they missed a trick. “Spinners will be very important here. Against Mumbai Indians, their spinners strangled us during the middle overs.
In the first 13 overs of our innings, I think they bowled at least 10 overs of spin, so it was a lesson for us. In terms of overall team selection, we may have missed a trick there.”
Kings XI Punjab might head into the game without the services of frontline spinners Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Varun Chakravarthy.
“Varun is out for a long time. Mujeeb has made good progress. He is certainly not in as much pain as he was a couple of nights ago. He will train today and we will make a decision after that,” said coach Mike Hesson.
Bitter truths
Misfiring batsmen & a pitch that has helped visitors more than hosts are the concerns Delhi Capitals carry into Saturday’s match against Kings XI Punjab...
Trio not firing
If one expected Prithvi Shaw, Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant to set the stage on fire, that has not happened. Shikhar Dhawan has been the only consistent one. With the business end approaching, Delhi’s batsmen have to put up a concerted effort.
Waterloo kotla
Support and familiarity with conditions are two of the major reasons why teams look forward to playing at home. In Delhi’s case, home advantage has not worked. They have lost three of their four matches at Kotla.
Faltering visitors
Kings XI have not been good travellers, having won just one of four away matches. But coming off a home win and up against a side which is not so high on morale after a crushing defeat, Ravichandran Ashwin’s men will fancy their chances of improving their away record.
X-factor
Delhi Capitals
Four wickets in 4 matches don’t make for great figures, but Amit Mishra looked good in the defeat against Mumbai.
Kings XI Punjab
Second in the tally of sixes with 26, Chris Gayle is a known nemesis of bowlers. His team mostly wins when he gets a big one.