Week 5 - Match 1 - Rajasthan Royals vs Delhi Daredevils

Welcome to the Sawai Mansingh Stadium, home of the Rajasthan Royals

Form

RR - DLLD

DD - DLWD

Pitch Conditions: A batting friendly pitch however it may seam around early on in the first innings and then at the beginning of the second innings under the lights. Hence the opening bowlers will also be critical on this pitch. If one sides medium pacers can keep it tight in the middle overs then they could be onto a winner!

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Please post tactics below...

Provisional XI

Watson
Dravid
Sangakkara (w)
Karthik
Uthappa
Menaria
Shukla
Warne (c)
Junaid/Narine/Nabi
Cummins
Ishant/Yadav

one side's opening bowlers could be useful..

varun aaron ...

Watson
Dravid
Sangakkara (w)
Karthik
Uthappa
Menaria
Razzaq
Warne (c)
Yadav
Cummins
Ishant

Selection - Cummins and Yadav are in due to the nature of the pitch. New signing Razzaq prefered to Botha for the same reason.

Batting - Watson will play fairly conservatively against the new ball as will Dravid. After 3 or 4 overs they will accelerate the run rate. Watson will look to smash as he does best, while Dravid will look for the gaps. The openers, a long with Sangakkara and Karthik will look to go at about 8 an over, building a good platform for Uthappa, Menaria and Razzaq to slog at the end. Razzaq will operate as a finisher so his position could change depending on wickets lost.

Bowling - Cummins and Ishant will open the bowling. The rapid opening bowlers will bowl aggressively and look to swing it against a top 3 that struggles against good seamers. Watson and Yadav will come on in the middle overs before Warne will bowl and Razzaq will aslo bowl though only an over or 2. Menaria's slow left armers will only be used if one of the other six bowlers has a bad day. If Yadav or Ishant go well in their spells they will be given an extra over at the expense of Watson.

Cummins 1,3,18,20 (4 overs)
Ishant 2,4,6 (3 overs)
Watson 5,7,17,19 (4 overs)
Warne 8,10,12,14 (4 overs)
Yadav 9,11,16 (3 overs)
Razzaq 13,15 (2 overs)

Toss - Bowl first. Due will be a factor in the second innings making it difficult for the bowlers to grip the ball, therefore I will bowl first.

Looking forward to this one, will put my team up later, no doubt my top 3 will get 'blown away' as usual...

You've got the best top 3 in the competition in my opinion sainty!

saint it all depends on the toss.

Gregers wrote:You've got the best top 3 in the competition in my opinion sainty!

I think you are overrating Sehwag in these conditions.But Warner is something really special.

My point is, no matter what the conditions, every time I put out Sehwag, Warner and Iqbal, they get 'ripped apart' or 'blown away'. Funny that...

it happens to most of us, we just get on with it

Just a tad unrealistic.

Bump Tactics from Delhi

Here we go folks.

Delhi Tactics

Line up.

1) V. Sehwag (c)
2) T. Iqbal (o)
3) D. Warner (o)
4) J. Taylor (o)
5) W. Jaffer
6) I. Pathan
7) N. Ojha (WK)
8) Y. Arafat (o)
9) M. Morkel
10) S. Fallah
11) V. Aaron

Selection - Wrung the changes from last weeks draw due to the pitch, with Iqbal, Fallah and Aaron returning to the line up, whilst new signing Yasir Arafat is handed his debut.

Toss - Bowl first. Tough decision as I have some quality death bowling options, just genuinely concerned about Razzaq batting second. Therefore the plan is to turn the screw on Rajhastan early doors whilst taking wickets and restrict them and let my long order chase.

Bowling - Morkel and Aaron will open the bowling, utilising the early seamer friendly conditions to pick up a couple of early wickets, the wickets of Watson, Sanga and Dravid are crucial, so my opening bowlers will be instructed to bowl quality line and length and let the ball talk. 2/3 early doors would be an excellent return. Pathan will replace Morkel after 2 whilst Aaron will continue to the end of his allotted 4. Once Varun has finished his spell, left arm medium bowler Samad Fallah will take place and will look to utilise the advantage of taking off the pace to restrict the Royals' middle order. Then I shall play my trump card in the attack, the excellent Yasir Arafat who has proved he is excellent at bowling at the end of an innings. He'll look to apply variation, as his yorkers are some of the best I've seen in my days of watching cricket and of course Morkel shall return to provide a dangerous ending salvo from the Delhi boys.

Composition
Morkel - 4 (1,3,18,20)
Aaron - 4 (2,4,6,8)
Arafat - 4 (13,15,17,19)
Pathan - 4 (5,7,9,11)
Fallah - 4 (10,12,14,16)

Batting - Having reduced Rajhastan to a gettable total, my opening pair of Sehwag and Iqbal will come out and look to see off the opening threat of the new ball, whilst playing responsibly under the lights, after that they can open their shoulders. Iqbal showed in England that he can bat against the new ball and accumulate and I'll want him to do the same job here to keep with the rate. Should I lose one of them, Warner can come in and attack as well. I'm more than prepared for a mini top order collapse as I have the unflappable James Taylor and experienced Wasim Jaffer to come in and rebuild if need be, whilst Pathan and Ojha can also bat well. Yasir Arafat has also been known to swing his bat as well in the past. With this lineup, I'm confident of a win that should see the Daredevils apply some pressure to the top teams.

both batting line ups are even in this game i think.

im suprsied mcdonald wasnt picked for this game.

i like arafat being in that side, with him and morkel you now have some match winning bowlers, beforehand u only really had morkel.

Arafat is hardly a match winning bowler, even Morkel's economy rate is over 7.

They take wickets though, I guess that's the most important thing..