Supergiant seek play-off berth against unpredictable Delhi

Rising Pune Supergiant, who have gone from strength to strength, will look to seal their place in the Play-offs with a win over inconsistent Delhi Daredevils in the Indian Premier League in New Delhi, on Friday.

With seven wins out of their last eight games, Supergiant have emerged as the other dominating side alongside table leaders Mumbai Indians.

There is a possibility that Supergiant will be already in the Play-offs before they take on Daredevils, provided Kings XI Punjab lose to Mumbai Indians later on Thursday.

Supergiant would have also have an added motivation when they step on to the field at Feroz Shah Kotla, having lost their home game against Daredevils by a huge 97-run margin.

It is all clicking for them at the right time. Their batting did not fire in the last game but their bowlers were able to defend 148 against Sunrisers Hyderabad with medium pacer Jaydev Unadkat taking a five-wicket haul including a hat-trick.

Unadkat has so far taken 17 wickets at an average of 14 while Supergiant's leading wicket-taker has been leggie Imran Tahir, who has picked up 18 wickets at 20.50.

They take on an inconsistent Daredevils, who pulled off a dramatic two-wicket win over Gujarat Lions yesterday, courtesy a Shreyas Iyer special.

The team, which is out of the play-off race, is keen to make the most of their remaining two games in the competition.

The result in Kanpur showed Daredevils could have got a lot more out of their campaign if they had won more key moments in the previous outings. One day they were chasing 200 plus targets with ease and on another day, they were being bowled for less than 70.

Their talented batting line-up comprising Iyer, Karun Nair, Sanju Samson and Rishabh Pant have not been able to fire consistently as a unit, leading to their downfall.

Even captain Zaheer Khan was at pains to explain Daredevils' erratic performance this season after a sensational win over Lions in Kanpur.

Champions Trophy bound Mohammed Shami's performance in the remaining games will be keenly watched as he has not been at his best after returning from injury.

The teams (from):

Delhi Daredevils: Zaheer Khan(C), Angelo Mathews, Corey Anderson, Kagiso Rabada, Pat Cummins, Ankit Bawne, Aditya Tare, Murugan Ashwin, Navdeep Saini, Shashank Singh, Mohammed Shami, Shahbaz Nadeem, Jayant Yadav, Amit Mishra, Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson, Chris Morris, Carlos Brathwaite, Karun Nair, Rishabh Pant, Chama Milind, Khaleel Ahmed, Pratyush Singh, Marlon Samuels.

Rising Pune Supergiant: Steve Smith (C), Ajinkya Rahane, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Ashok Dinda, Mayank Agarwal, Faf du Plessis, Ankit Sharma, Baba Aparajith, Ankush Bains, Rajat Bhatia, Deepak Chahar, Rahul Chahar, Dan Christian, Lockie Ferguson, Imran Tahir, Jaskaran Singh, Usman Khawaja, Saurabh Kumar, Ben Stokes, Washington Sundar, Milind Tandon, Manoj Tiwary, Adam Zampa, Jaydev Unadkat, Ishwar Pandey, Rahul Tripathi and Shardul Thakur.