Dardevils aim to break string of home losses

New Delhi, April 22 : Delhi Daredevils will aim to sp their streak of nine home match losses when they face Mumbai Indians in their Indian Premier League (IPL) contest here at the Ferozeshah Kotla on Thursday.

Daredevils lost all their home matches last season to become the bottom-placed team. They have started on the wrong foot this year too, losing their first two matches to Rajasthan Royals and Kolkata Knight Riders, which has stretched their home losing streak to nine matches since 2013.

They have won only two of their five matches in the league so far to be at the fourth spot in the standings, displaying moderate performances.

But Daredevils will fancy their chances since their opponents are in a worse shape than them.

Mumbai, similar to Delhi, boast a strong squad on paper, but have performed poorly in their five matches so far, winning only once.

Delhi will also look to count on their positives which have emerged from their matches. Their batting has looked strong on occasion with star man Yuvraj Singh displaying flashes of his past brilliance.

Similarly, Delhi’s bowling, led by the tourment’s leading wicket-taker leggie Imran Tahir (10 wickets from 5 matches), has also shown signs of competency.

His partnership with fellow leg-spinner Amit Mishra has been one of the highlights of the team.

Mumbai’s problem has primarily been with bowling. They lost their first four matches because of malfunctioning of the bowling unit. Their sole win against Royal Challengers Bangalore was a close-fought win despite the team posting a massive 209 runs.

Still, they will hope their Rohit Sharma-spearheaded batting will post a big score again on Thursday, which will be defended by their bowlers.

Skipper Rohit Sharma will draw comfort from experienced off-spinner Harbhajan Singh’s form (8 scalps from 4 games) who seems to have sprung back into life after spending a considerable time away from the tiol team. IANS