11 April,2017 09:13 AM IST | | Shreeram Gokhale
With a 1-1 win-loss record, Rising Pune Supergiant should be reasonably happy with the start to their campaign. But a win today against the Delhi Daredevils at home would be important for their morale
Mahendra Singh Dhoni
Pune: With a 1-1 win-loss record, Rising Pune Supergiant should be reasonably happy with the start to their campaign. But a win today against the Delhi Daredevils at home would be important for their morale before they travel to Rajkot and Bangalore for two away games.
Today's game will be played on the same wicket that was used for the first match against Mumbai Indians, and Steve Smith's men might fancy their chances keeping in mind the success of their slow bowlers in the first game here.
Their South African leg-spinner Imran Tahir has been in top form in both the games. Rajat Bhatia was excellent in his spell against the Mumbai Indians here with his slow medium pace few days back where he conceded just 14 runs in three overs and got a wicket.
Having said that, the Supergiant's major concern remains their inability to defend totals. Lack of a quality Indian pacer or spinner has started to put too much pressure on the likes of Tahir and English all-rounder Ben Stokes. The team management tried to reduce their burden by bringing in all-rounder Dan Christian for the game against Kings XI Punjab, but the Australian failed to make an impact, bowling both sides of the wicket.
"We have a lot of young bowlers in the line-up. But it's not easy to bowl in this format. We need to give them time. We have to wait for five-six games before commenting on their performance," Tahir said, when asked about the ability of his teammates to contain the opposition, especially during the death overs.
The Daredevils also have two quality spinners in the form of Amit Mishra and Shahbaz Nadeem. The Wily old fox Zaheer Khan knows exactly how to bowl on this type of wicket. But head-to-head, Supergiant is a slightly better batting unit with Ajinkya Rahane, Steve Smith and Ben Stokes all getting runs. Daredevils on the other hand failed to chase down 159 in good batting conditions in Bangalore on Sunday.
