Sport - Cricket

Gambhir is a class player

Some time during the last Indian Premier League, I remember an expert wondering whether Gautam Gambhir was the first T20 specialist. In the intervening 12 months, Gautam has become the leading Test run scorer and has been exceptional in 50-over cricket as well.

He is a class player who has great attitude, is aggressive and has the ability to adapt his game to the demands of every format. I have always liked Gautam, a soft-spoken guy off the field who can often get hot under the collar — a bit like yours truly a few years ago!

It was therefore good to him get a 50 against Kolkata the other night. I would still say that Gautam is not hitting them as well as he can, but I am sure his silken touch is not far away. The same can be said for the Delhi Daredevils as a whole.

We have not played to potential, but we have still managed five wins in seven games. The momentum is with us, and we seem to be doing just enough to get across the line. We are also capitalising on the fine form of Dilshan who has been really whacking them in the first half of our campaign.

The free stroke play of all our batsmen suggest that they have faith in each other, and a line-up that has Virender Sehwag, Gautam, David Warner, A.B. de Villiers and Dilshan can only get better as the tournament goes on.

Looking ahead to Friday’s game, the Mumbai Indians will be hurting after their defeat on Wednesday. They have an awesome batting line-up and it’s hard to understand why they have not won more games.

But that is the nature of T20 cricket: anything can happen. As Mumbai discovered, even an innocuous Rohit Sharma can take a hat-trick in this format.

I would say that Mumbai is a fine team and we will have to play well against them. Zaheer Khan’s absence will hurt them, but Lasith Malinga has been in very good rhythm. His low slinging action and his accuracy make him quite a handful.

He has an incredible ability to keep bowling yorkers at will — which is an asset — and at his pace, this really makes him hard to get away. His action also makes it hard for batsmen to pick the ball, but apparently they get used to it after a bit.

Virender’s injury is on the mend but now he is down with a virus. Thursday was a day off for the team, so it remains to be seen whether he practises on Friday.

Gameplan

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