Daredevils look for home comfort

New Delhi: Bruised and battered after a string of defeats, Delhi Daredevils find themselves in an ‘oh-so-familiar’ situation as they seek home comfort against a Chris Gayle-inspired Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League, here on Monday.

Without an iota of doubt, the Daredevils have been the least impressive of all teams in the past few seasons of the cash-rich extravaganza, only managing to finish at the bottom half of the pecking order.

In the last two seasons, Daredevils ended their campaign at sixth position, were a place down in 2015 and finished last the year before, in 2014.

The story has been similar in the ongoing edition as they struggle with fours reverses from five outings to occupy the last place.

They were done in by the versatile AB de Villiers’ smashing knock on Saturday and up next at the Feroz Shah Kotla, Daredevils will be up against the destructive Gayle, who has made a statement with two fifties and century, scoring those runs in his trademark style.

Thanks to Gayle’s belligerence, Kings XI Punjab are firmly placed at the top of the order with four victories and a solitary defeat.

Given the form they have shown in the previous encounters, Kings XI Punjab will fancy their chances to continue the momentum against an embattled Delhi Daredevils outfit.

Royal Challengers Bangalore chasing down a target of 175 with two overs to spare, is more of a reflection of Deredevils’ poor team selection rather than helplessness.

To start with, they lost to Punjab in their away game, were then subjected to a humiliating defeat by Kolkata, emerged second best against Rajasthan under the D/L method and faced another reverse at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Delhi Daredevils’ only victory has come against Mumbai Indians when English opener Jason Roy and the dynamic Rishabh Pant fired.