Its Delhi Today !!!!!

I am sure the whole of India is eagerly waiting for the 1st semi-finals to start tonight. Its going to be a tight contest with both the teams evenly balanced and the key players in good form. Taking the Wankade pitch into consideration, I feel Delhi has a good chance to win this contest. The pitch has favored good seam bowling in the league phase and with Asif and McGrath spear heading the attack its not going to be easy for Smith and Asnodkar to belt the ball as they have been doing in the tournament. Smith will be handy but i am not confident that he can raise the run-rate at will. If todays pitch plays good for seam bowlers, its not going to be easy for Rajasthan batsmen (except kaif) as all of them are good stroke players and would like the ball to come on to the bat. As for as Delhi batting is concerned, they have batsmen who play the waiting game in Gowtham and Dhavan, even though Shewag is the key batsmen for delhi, they have good bits and pieces cricketers in Karthik,Dhilshan,Maroof who can chip in with some good hitting in the end overs.

If its going to be belter of a pitch, its advantage Rajasthan as they have the most power hitting players in Asnodkar, Y.Pathan, Watson, Jadeja, Warne and Tanver. Rajasthan has also given ample rest to the top players like Smith,Tanver and Warner himself not playing the last league match should be fresh to play in the semi-finals. As for as Delhi is concerned, batting is their strength and if Shewag clicks i am sure no score will be too big to chase. If Delhi wins the toss, they should bowl first and restrict Rajasthan to 170-180 and chase the total comfortably with players in form like Gambhir,Dhavan should chip in with good contribution. I feel it will be advantage for the Rajasthan side if they bowl first, as Delhi does not have the bowling line up to restrict scores even over 180+. The only problem with the Rajasthan side is, they have not been pushed to the corner in the tournament yet, hence might not react quickly on pressure conditions. Take into consideration that they were not fancied in the early stages of the tournament, so there is no pressure but now they are the favorites and the whole world is expecting to see Rajasthan win, thats a huge huge pressure on the side.

My Gut feeling says that Delhi will win this game and move to the Finals, don't ask me why Delhi :-)