KP likely for Royals' tie

After a disastrous start to their campaign with two successive defeats, bottom-placed Sunrisers Hyderabad will be eager to bounce back against an inconsistent Delhi Daredevils, who are likely to be boosted by the return by Kevin Pietersen, in the seventh edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) here on Friday.

In their inaugural season, Hyderabad had reached the play-offs but their campaign this year started on a disappointing note as they first lost to Rajasthan Royals by four wickets and then were blown away by Glenn Maxwell during their 72-run defeat to Kings XI Punjab.

Delhi, on the other hand, blew hot and cold as they began with an eight-wicket loss against Royal Challengers Bangalore, bounced back against Kolkata Knight Riders and an abject batting failure saw them suffer an embarrassing 93-run loss to Chennai in their last match.

Their campaign seemed to be affected by the absence of Pietersen, who has so far missed all the three matches, owing to an injury on his little finger, which he suffered during fielding drills with Surrey at the Oval last month.

The former England skipper is hopeful of leading the Delhi outfit when they take on Hyderabad and it is going to give a big boost to their batting as well. Hyderabad too have been battling batting woes. While in their opening game, the Shikhar Dhawan-led side failed to put up enough score on board against Rajasthan, in their second match they simply capitulated against Kings XI Punjab.

Dhawan too has spoken about their batting failure and fielding woes after the game against Punjab and he will have to address these issues if they have to turn it around at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Friday.

Their bowlers had faired well against Rajasthan when they took the game down to the wire but they could not withstand the Maxwell tide on Tuesday. Pace duo of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Dale Steyn have been pretty consistent so fa.

For Delhi, Mohammad Shami has been the spearhead of their pace attack, while Jaydev Unadkat too has done well to take four wickets in the two games he has played so far. But they would be affected by the absence of Australian quick Nathan Coulter-Nile, who suffered a hamstring injury against Chennai.

But Delhi spinners have disappointed as neither Shahbaz Nadeem nor JP Duminy could do much to stop the rival batsmen so far.