versus 
The first Semi final is between Delhi Daredevils and Rajasthan Royals.
Both teams have faced each other twice in the league matches and they split the series 1-1.
In the first match Dehli defeated Rajasthan by 9 wickets, but Rajasthan didn’t had Tanvir, Smith, Asnodkar in their line up and Dehli had the services of Vettori then.
In the second match Rajasthan defeated Dehli by three wickets, Rajasthan rested Tanvir in that match and Dehli played without Vettori.
Both matches were low scoring in the first match the target was a mere 130 and in the second match it was 157. On both occassions the side batting second won the match.
Players to watch
Rajasthan’s trump cards will be Tanvir, Pathan, Watson and Smith. Whereas Sehwag, Gambhir McGrath and Mahroof will be Dehli’s trump cards.
The opening duo of Sehwag and Gambhir will face Tanvir for the first time, if Gambhir and Sehwag survive Tanvir’s opening spell and managed to score against him, Rajasthan will definitely be under pressure, so far Tanvir has been difficult to get away in the initial overs, he will be the key for Rajasthan as Delhi depends a lot on Sehwag and Gambhir for their runs, if Tanvir or Watson took early wickets Delhi will be in trouble:
Weak areas:
Rajasthan is struggling with its opening combination since the last few matches and Dehli is struggling with the fifth bowler, its yet to be seen if they play Asif or not, my guess is both Asif and Malik will play in the semis replacing Dilshan and AB de villiers. Asif is good against left handers so it will not be a bad idea, Dilshan had a couple of good games but most of the times he failed. Malik will give more depth to Delhi’s batting.
Delhi Probables: 1 Gautam Gambhir, 2 Virender Sehwag (capt), 3 Shikhar Dhawan, 4 Manoj Tiwary, 5 Shoaib Malik, 6 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 7 Farveez Maharoof, 8 V Yomahesh, 9 Amit Mishra, 10 Mohammad Asif 11 Glenn McGrath.
Rajasthan Probables:1 Graeme Smith, 2 Swapnil Asnodkar, 3 Yusuf Pathan, 4 Shane Watson, 5 Niraj Patel, 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 Mahesh Rawat (wk), 8 Shane Warne (capt), 9 Sohail Tanvir, 10 Siddharth Trivedi, 11 Munaf Patel.
Stats:
Rajasthan Royals are not great in the power plays both with the bat or the ball, they haven’t taken much wickets but they have given less runs as a result they take more wickets in the middle and final overs. In the power play overs they have given away runs @ 7.56 and scored runs @ 7.75 while Delhi in power play overs have scored @ 8.72 and given away runs @ 7.99.
In middle overs Rajasthan has scored @ 8.52 and given away runs @ 6.88, Delhi has scored @ 8.68 and given away runs @ 7.81.
In last overs Rajasthan has scored @ 10.29 and given away runs @ 8.84. Delhi in last overs has scored @ 8.95 and given away runs @9.85.
Delhi has gotten better starts because of Sehwag and Gambhir, and even in the middle overs their scoring rate is better because of Dhawan. Rajasthan has performed better in the later overs because of Pathan and in the middle overs they have stifled the opposition because of miserly spells. They have also taken more wickets in the middle and later overs than any other team.
It will all depend on Sehwag and Gambhir how long they stay on the wicket, Rajasthan will depend on Tanvir for early break throughs.
Toss & Ground:
The team winning the toss will probably field first because the seaside situation of the Wankhede stadium means that the swing bowlers get a fair amount of assistance during the first half. The pitch has traditionally been full of runs, but it does help the spinners , also in the previous matches between the two teams the side batting second won, in total 7 matchs were played on this ground and 5 times the side batting second won. Both teams played one match each on this ground and both lost.
Favorites:
Rajasthan are favorites to win the Semis as they are a more balanced team, Delhi’s top three batsmen have been getting most of their runs 62% to be exact, their middle order fails mostly also they have struggled with their bowling in most of the matches, the absence of a quality fifth bowler in the league matches costed them quite a few matches. The inclusion of Asif will strengthen them but then again he has proved to be quite expensive giving away runs @9.42/over.
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