Daredevils fight for survival against Sunrisers

New Delhi: In order to keep their last-four chances alive in this IPL season, Delhi Daredevils will take the field on Thursday against table-toppers Sunrisers Hyderabad at Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium here on Thursday.

The Shreyas Iyer-led side will also look to avenge the loss to SRH in Hyderabad last Sunday. Despite the sporadic run of form after a change in captaincy, DD will take confidence from the fact that they have a pulled out two victories on a trot at home turf.

The Delhi-based franchise have won just one game away from home but have managed to win all but one match at the Kotla. A lot will again depend on Indian young Turks Prithvi Shaw and Rishabh Pant, including the skipper, to carry on the batting onslaught. The trio has amassed 949 runs in 10 games so far. Despite the vast improvement with the bat, Delhi has been let down by their pedestrian bowling. The team's think tank has tried various bowling combinations, the but the poor death bowling has proved costly for Delhi.

English pacer Liam Plunkett and veteran leg-spinner Amit Mishra have succeeded in stopping the run flow in the death and middle-overs respectively. But the failure of other bowlers to sustain the pressure has let other teams off the hook.

Sunrisers, on the other hand, has been the most consistent in this edition of the IPL with an astounding eight wins in 10 games.

Ability to pick wickets at regular intervals, especially in death overs, has been the key feature of the Kane Williamson-led side. The trio of Rashid Khan (13), Siddarth Kaul (13) and Shakib-al Hassan (10) have claimed 36 scalps together in their IPL campaign so far.

The Hyderabad-based franchise is currently on a four-match winning streak and will look to seal their spot in the last-four with a victory on Thursday. Their confidence is boosted by the fact that their batsmen have found some fluency after top-order collapses in consecutive matches before Delhi's win. Captain Williamson, with 410 runs in 10 innings, has been the mainstay of the team from the beginning of the season. Adding to that likes of Alex Hales, Shikhar Dhawan and Yusuf Pathan chipped in with valuable contributions every now and then.