What

The Delhi Daredevils will look to open their account in VIVO IPL 2017 when they take on Rising Pune Supergiant in Match 9.

Heading into this match, RPS have one win from two outings; they defeated the Mumbai Indians in a close match in their season opener, before being blown away by Glenn Maxwell and co. in their second match.

The Delhi Daredevils had a great opportunity to get the better of Royal Challengers Bangalore in their opening match of the season. The Zaheer Khan-led side did extremely well to restrict RCB to 157 and were in a good position to post a convincing win, but the middle order caved in, and despite a dazzling 57 from Rishabh Pant, DD finished 15 runs short.

When

11 April 2017, 2000 Hrs IST

Where

MCA International Stadium, Pune

The Protagonists

It is only the second week of April, and Steven Smith has already scored in excess of 1000 runs across the various formats of the game. The RPS captain has been in sublime form, and there is no doubt opponents will see him as the prized scalp in the RPS line-up. Ben Stokes, is another important player in the RPS line-up; in the previous match against KXIP, the English all-rounder scored his maiden IPL half-century and he will be keen to pile on the runs given the reputation he has come into the tournament with.

Delhi Daredevils are short of resources in the batting department, and it is, therefore, important that they get their combination and batting order right. Rishabh Pant carries with him the reputation of being a demolition man – someone who can blow away opponents in a matter of minutes; the 19-year old who scored an impressive half-century against RCB on Saturday, will be better utilised if he is sent to bat at the top of the innings.

Match within the match

Rishabh Pant will come up against two aggressive players in the Rising Pune Supergiant line-up; Ben Stokes and Imran Tahir are impact players and their battles against the teenager in the Delhi Daredevils ranks promises to be exciting.

Head to Head

Delhi Daredevils are the only opponent against who Rising Pune Supergiant have a 100% win record; the two teams have so far met on two occasions and RPS have prevailed on both occasions

Trivia

Rising Pune Supergiant have never won a match when they have batted first; RPS have batted first on eight occasions and they have lost each of those contests.

What Next

Rising Pune Supergiant’s next fixture is against the Gujarat Lions; the match is scheduled to played in Rajkot at 8pm on April 14. Delhi Daredevils meanwhile will enjoy a 3-day break before they play their first home match of the season; they host Kings XI Punjab on April 15.