15 May,2011 08:01 AM IST | | Ashwin Ferro
Kings XI Punjab skipper reckons a Sehwag-less Delhi Daredevils will be in a carefree mood considering they have nothing to lose
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Kings XI Punjab skipper Adam Gilchrist said on Saturday that his team is wary of Delhi Daredevils despite Virender Sehwag missing from his Indian Premier League opponents' team sheet.
Kings XI Punjab team captain Adam Gilchrist gestures during the IPL
Twenty20 match against Kochi Tuskers Kerala at Nehru Stadium in
Indore on Friday. PIC/AFP
Sehwag is recovering from a shoulder surgery which he underwent in London a few days ago.
Delhi are out of contention for the play-offs with just eight points from four wins in their 12 outings so far with two games in hand.u00a0 Gilchrist believes it's this factor that makes the Daredevils so dangerous.
"Just as we thought we could heave a sigh of relief given the absence of a world-class player like Sehwag, the fact that they are out of the reckoning for a place in the final four, makes them all the more dangerous for us.
They will be trying out different and new things, and their boys will play with a carefree attitude which is dangerous for any opposing team," a rather sleepy-looking Gilchrist said at the team hotel here yesterday, less than 12 hours after his team beat Kochi Tuskers Kerala in Indore by six wickets on Friday night.
Having upstaged an in-form Mumbai Indians (by 76 runs) a couple of days before the Kochi game, the Punjab side look forward to a hat-trick of victories. They are currently on 10 points from five wins off 11 games with three to play. "We all know what the Mumbai batting is capable of and then yesterday, the bowlers did very well to keep Kochi down to 178. Had we not bowled well towards the end, the total would have been much higher. Bhargav (Bhatt) and Bipul (Sharma, both left-arm spinners), have been bowling well for us and yesterday Piyush (Chawla, leg-spinner) did well too. Also, in the batting, we've got different players delivering.
Yesterday, it was Dinesh (Karthik) and Shaun (Marsh), which is good for us (whereas in the previous games it was Gilchrist and Paul Valthaty, who have batted Punjab to wins)," added Gilchrist, who expected the wicket to suit his batsmen too. Meanwhile, the Daredevils camp, as expected, is not in the best of spirits, given their premature exit from the tournament. Coach Greg Shipperd blamed their inconsistency to the lack of batting depth. "Sehwag and David (Warner) have not enjoyed enough support from the rest of the batting line-up and that has been pretty much the reason for most of our defeats. However, we have put all that behind us now and are ready to try out a few changes in a view to building this team for the next season," said Shipperd.
