Gayle storm looms large over hapless Delhi Daredevils

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 22

Chris Gayle wasn’t part of the playing XI when Kings XI Punjab coasted to a six-wicket win over Delhi Daredevils in their first duel at the IS Bindra Stadium. However, his will be the first name on the playing XI list when Kings XI take on Daredevils in the away game here on Monday. After warming the bench for a couple of games, the towering Jamaican came out all guns blazing when he got his opportunity —  he has scored 229 runs in three innings, including a century, at a staggering average of 229. And as one would expect, he’s the leading six-hitter with 21 hits over the fence.

His opening partner KL Rahul has been equally explosive, especially during the Powerplay. The India opener has scored 153 of his 213 runs in the Powerplay overs. It’s their partnership that has seen the Ravichandran Ashwin-led side jump to the top of the points table along with Chennai Super Kings with eight points from five matches. 

Daredevils, on the other hand, have had a pretty horrid run so far and are languishing at the bottom of the heap. So, they will be pretty desperate to snap their losing streak and get back to winning ways. Apart from Rishabh Pant, who has amassed 223 runs, no other Delhi batsman has looked in any kind of form. Daredevils skipper Gautam Gambhir started off with a half-century but scored just 26 runs in the next four games. England opener Jason Roy has aggregated merely 97 runs in five games, while Shreyas Iyer has collected just 94 runs. Iyer, though, looked in good touch in the last game against Royal Challengers Bangalore, scoring a 31-ball 52. In the same game, Pant hammered a 48-ball 85 but both the knocks went in vain as AB de Villiers won the game for Bangalore with an unbeaten 90.

 “We didn’t execute our plans well,” Pant said after the loss. “We had a big partnership, got a decent score but because of the brilliance of AB and the dew, we lost the match.”

To make matters worse for Delhi, the bowlers, too, haven’t been up to the scratch. So it would take a huge effort from the bottom-scrapers to get the better of the joint table-toppers.