Preview: Auckland Aces will seek to stay afloat by Asher Wilson

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Scorecard:	Auckland v Delhi Daredevils
Event:	Champions League 2012/13

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DateLine: 19th October 2012

 

Auckland v Dehli Daredevils
Match Preview
Champions League T20 2012

 

The competition shifts base yet again, this time to the city of Durban where Kingsmead will host its third game of the Champions League T20 on Friday evening as the Delhi Daredevils take on the Auckland Aces. The Weather Gods will play a huge role in determining the outcome of this match, and also whether there will be an outcome at all. Assuming that the conditions are good, one can look forward to a tight contest as both teams will look to compete in this crucial game as we move towards the middle of the group stage of the competition.

 

Auckland Aces will seek to stay afloat in the competition as they had mixed result so far in the main round. After annihilating KKR by seven wickets in the first game, they lost to Titans by 59 runs yesterday.

 

The Gareth Hopkins-led team would be desperate to get their campaign back on track against Delhi tomorrow. Till yesterday, Auckland were on roll given that it had won both its qualifying matches and then the first Group A game against KKR. Devoid of any big stars, Auckland team has been a surprise package with its gritty performances.

 

An enterprising batting line-up has been Auckland's strength and this was revealed in match against KKR with good contributions coming from the top order even though the target was not huge. Experienced all-rounder Azhar Mahmood was the star performer with both the bat and ball. He would again be a key player for the team along with Vincent and Martin Guptill.

 

The trio remains the lifeline of Auckland's batting department, but against Titans yesterday, they failed to deliver with the bat and would be eager to return among runs. The side doesn’t have a batsman to drop anchor in the event of an early loss of wickets. Also, poor shot selection hastened their demise against the Titans.

 

In the bowling, Bates and Mills have combined well with the new ball and have been well supported by the omnipresent Mahmood. Against DD they will need early wickets if they are to have any hope of winning. Auckland will look to the former Pakistan all-rounder to wrest the initiative with the ball during the middle overs of the Delhi Innings.

 

DD who had a winning start to the tournament when they beat KKR four days ago are likely to find it hard to keep the momentum from that win, after such a long hiatus from playing action. As ever, their batting stars led by Sehwag and including the likes of Jayawardene, Pietersen and Taylor will seek to dominate the rival attack and in Unmukt Chand, they have another useful batsman capable of adapting to changing team requirements.

 

In the bowling department, DD have four new ball operators who would find the local wicket conditions to their liking, in the form of Morkel, Yadav, Pathan and Agarkar. Irfan Pathan in particular could be the man to watch out for in moist conditions likely to aid swing. His ability to provide early breakthroughs added to his more than useful batting could make him crucial to DD’s fortunes on Friday.

 

DD’s better team balance should win the day for the IPL outfit but don’t expect Aces to go down without a fight.

 

Teams:

 

Auckland Aces: AR Adams, Azhar Mahmood, MD Bates, B Cachopa, C de Grandhomme, MJ Guptill, RM Hira ,GJ Hopkins, AK Kitchen, MJ McClenaghan, BP Martin, CS Martin, KD Mills, C Munro, L Vincent,

 

Dehli Daredevils: AB Agarkar, U Chand, DPMD Jayawardene, M Morkel, P Negi, NV Ojha, IK Pathan, KP Pietersen, AD Russell, AM Salvi, V Sehwag, LRPL Taylor, Y Venugopal Rao, DA Warner, UT Yadav

(Article: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author only.
Copyright © 2012 Pakistan Cricket Website)