IPL 2: Team Preview : Delhi Daredevils

Delhi may now no longer have the services of their Pakistani duo in the name of Shaoib Malik and Mohammed Asif, but the team looks even more dangerous after their imports in the likes of Australian opening batsman David Warner and the England Duo of Owais Shah and Paul Collingwood.Warners sensation T20 debut for Australia against South Africa proved his worth for the Delhi daredevils side. Having played these games in South Africa might help his cause. Delhi also have all rounder Allan McDonald, who too debuted for Australia in the recent T20 matches, and left-arm fast bowler Dirk Nannes, an out-and-out Twenty20 specialist.



Delhi were in great form last year and made it to as far as the semi finals when they lost to Chennai Super Kings in a one-off match. Gambhir and Sehwag put up partnerships that no teams had answer to. There was no one way to get them out, The only way the duo lost their wickets were to run outs most of the time. When the opponents eventually succeeded in picking them, In walked Shikhar Dhwan who played even better than the duo. sadly, Shikhar Dhawan will play for the Mumbai Indians side this year, leaving an open spot for Develliers to walk in and continue his form with the bat. Glenn McGrath continued to live up to the reputation, while Daniel Vettori who said that he was happy to be in Sehwag's side as he will not have to bowl to him will bring in his experience.


Dilshan and Collingwood could prove useful with both bat and ball, as Amit Mishra spinned a web around the batsman last year. Ashish Nehra, Yo Mahesh and Pradeep Sangwan will be battling for the second and third seamers spot with the foreign players. With most of their foreign players free for tournament, the only headache for Delhi could be getting their XI right.

Probable XI: 1 Virender Sehwag, 2 Gautam Gambhir, 3 Tillakaratne Dilshan/ Owais Shah, 4 Manoj Tiwary/ David Warner, 5 AB de Villiers/ Dinesh Karthik (wk), 6 Rajat Bhatia/ Paul Collingwood, 7 Daniel Vettori 8 Amit Mishra/ Ashish Nehra, 9 Farveez Maharoof/ Yo Mahesh, 10 Dirk Nannes/ Pradeep Sangwan, 11 Glenn McGrath.





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Kunal Janu
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IPL 2: Tournament kicks off April 18 in Cape Town, South Africa

Finally, The schedule of the IPL Season 2 is out and for everyone to see. All eight IPL franchises will play at least half their matches in Durban, Cape Town and Centurion, where they hope to have significant crowd support from the sizeable Indian-origin population, according to the official tournament schedule that was released on Friday night. The opening double-header in Cape Town on April 18 - Mumbai Indians v Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals v Bangalore Royal Challengers - will feature at least nine South African players, including Graeme Smith, the South Africa captain, in a calculated attempt to spark local interest in what is essentially an Indian domestic event.



According to the schedule, Cape Town hosts a chunk of the matches in the beginning of the tournament till April 26 when the action shifts to the Supersport Park and other venues. The matches in Durban, the main venue, run through the whole tournament from April 21 to May 20. The final is being held on May 24 in Johannesburg, which also hosts one of the semi-finals the day before

Kingsmead in Durban, which has a sizeable Indian-origin population, was allocated 16 matches, the highest among the eight venues, while Supersport Park in Centurion will host 12 games. The Wanderers and Newlands will stage eight matches each, while St George's Park in Port Elizabeth and Buffalo Park in East London were given seven and three matches respectively. Two matches each were handed to the Outsurance Oval in Bloemfontein and three to the De Beers Oval in Kimberley.

Schedule, Courtesy CricInfo:







Kings XI Punjab play 10 of their 14 matches, the maximum among the eight franchises, at the three venues in demand, followed by Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals, Bangalore Royal Challengers and Chennai Super Kings (9), Deccan Chargers and Mumbai Indians (8), and Delhi Daredevils (7).

The matches will be held at 12.30 pm and 4.30 pm local time (4.00pm and 8.00pm IST; 10.30am and 2.30pm GMT ).

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