IPL 2017: KXIP vs DD, Face Off

Punjab’s bowling must step up to the task against Delhi Daredevils

After four straight losses, Delhi Daredevils take their caravan to the Punjab Cricket Association stadium in Mohali with a hope of turning the tables against Kings XI Punjab. Mohali's track is known to support the pacers and Delhi's strength has been their quality and variety in the pace department.

DD also won the last time these two teams met, a comfortable 51 run victory. 

For the Kings, their batting has been riding on Hashim Amla’s knocks, who injured himself and was replaced by Guptill in the last match. Manan Vohra, Shaun Marsh and Glenn Maxwell have played some good innings as well but their bowling has brought them down.

A classic bat versus bowl is on the cards at Mohali as Punjab's star-studded batting lineup take on against the brilliant bowling attack of Delhi. Both teams need a victory at any cost today as Punjab are sixth on the table with six points and Delhi are languishing at the bottom with four points. 

Here, we statistically compare the two expected starting lineups of both the sides in order to find a favourite for this encounter. The comparison made is only based on the IPL career stats with the internationals not being counted for this head to head comparison. (*Players who have played less than 15 matches are not included in this face off)

Kings XI Punjab	Delhi Daredevils	Who’s better?
Martin Guptill	Sanju Samson	N/A
Runs- 80, Avg- 20, SR- 121.21	Runs- 1324, Avg- 27.02, SR- 123.97
Manan Vohra	Sam Billings	N/A
Runs- 906, Avg- 24.51, SR- 133.97	Runs- 226, Avg- 25.11, SR- 136.14
Shaun Marsh	Karun Nair	KXIP
Runs- 2353, Avg- 41.28, SR- 133.16	Runs- 995, Avg- 24.49, SR- 123.39
Glenn Maxwell	Shreyas Iyer	KXIP
Runs- 1111, Avg- 24.69, SR- 164.35	Runs- 620, Avg- 26.96, SR- 126.27
Wriddhiman Saha	Rishabh Pant	Evens-Stevens
Runs- 1392, Avg- 24, SR- 131.2	Runs- 345, Avg- 23, SR- 141.98
Eoin Morgan	Ankit Bawne	N/A
Runs- 850, Avg- 21.79, SR- 121.26	Runs- 12, Avg- 0, SR- 100
Axar Patel	Chris Morris	DD
Runs- 517, Avg- 17.83, SR- 125.49 Wkts- 51, Avg- 27.76, Eco- 7.47	Runs- 422, Avg- 38.36, SR- 166.8 Wkts- 53, Avg- 22.85, Eco- 7.52
Matt Henry	Kagiso Rabada	N/A
Yet to make his debut	Wkts- 3, Avg- 26.67, Eco- 6.82
Mohit Sharma	Pat Cummins	N/A
Wkts- 76, Avg- 25.36, Eco- 8.08	Wlts- 11, Avg- 29.09, Eco- 7.97
KC Cariappa	Amit Mishra	N/A
Wkts- 8, Avg- 39.25, Eco- 9.24	Wkts- 131, Avg- 23.59, Eco- 7.33
Varun Aaron	Zaheer Khan	DD
Wkts- 36, Avg- 31.81, Eco- 8.76	Wkts- 99, Avg- 26.94, Eco- 7.61

                               Kings XI Punjab 2-2 Delhi Daredevils

As said before, Punjab’s batting is easily stronger than Delhi but the Daredevils make up in the bowling department, with the likes of experienced customers like Amit Mishra and Zaheer khan. The battle between Mishra and Maxwell makes today’s afternoon battle one to look forward to.