Virender Sehwag
Delhi Daredevils led by Virender Sehwag go into the match as favourites Reuters

The Delhi Daredevils are sitting pretty on the top of cricket's Indian Premier League (IPL) table, with 18 points from 13 games. The Kings XI Punjab, meanwhile, have 14 and will need to beat the table toppers in order to stand a chance of making the top four and the semi-finals.

The two will clash at the Feroz Shah Kotla ground in Delhi, on Tuesday evening.

The Daredevils' batting has been heavily reliant on the heroics of captain Virender Sehwag and top order foreign recruits David Warner and Mahela Jayawardane. Their bowling performances have been led by South African pacer Morne Morkel, who has adapted well to the slow Kotla track and made life difficult for visiting teams. Morkel has been ably supported by the Indian cast of Umesh Yadav and Varun Aaron, while Sehwag will be hopeful that local spinner Shahbaz Nadeem can return to the starting eleven after missing the last game.

For the Kings XI meanwhile, stand-in skipper David Hussey has been leading from the front, in the absence of fellow Australian Adam Gilchrist, who is still injured. The side has also benefitted greatly from consistent performances by local boy Mandeep Singh and fellow local Gurkeerat Singh's last minute heroics against the Deccan Chargers in their previous game has won him some fans.

The good news for the Kings XI is that the Daredevils' winning run was brought to an emphatic halt by the Chennai Super Kings and they will be hoping in-form speedster Parvinder Awana could prove a trump card when bowling at his Ranji Trophy home ground.

The match can be followed live on cricinfo.com and cricbuzz.com.

Facts

  • Both Delhi and Punjab have three games left; two of them are against each other.
  • League leaders Delhi have lost two of their last three games.
  • Punjab have won five away matches in a row.

Probable Line-Up

Delhi Daredevils: Virender Sehwag (c), David Warner, Mahela Jayawardene, Naman Ojha (wk), Venugopal Rao, Yogesh Nagar, Irfan Pathan, Roelof van der Merwe, Morne Morkel, Varun Aaron, Umesh Yadav

Kings XI Punjab: Shaun Marsh, Mandeep Singh, Nitin Saini (wk), David Hussey (c), Azhar Mahmood, Gurkeerat Singh, Siddharth Chitnis, Piyush Chawla, Ryan Harris, Praveen Kumar, Parvinder Awana