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The Delhi Daredevils have not experienced any of the roller-coaster rides that sides such as the Deccan Chargers, the Bangalore Royal Challengers or the Rajasthan Royals have seen across the first two seasons of the IPL. They started 2008 as amongst the better teams and reached the semi-finals, and started 2009 as one of the two favourites for the title, but failed again at the semi-final stage after topping the league.

Both times they lost to the eventual champions. This time they will hope that it is they who are handing out defeats in the semi-finals. Delhi's top-order is easily the best and most fearsome in the tournament. In the tag-teaming duo of Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag, they have the world's best opening pair. To back them up are the made-for-Twenty20 talents of David Warner, followed by the two batsmen who were most instrumental in their 2009 run - AB de Villiers and Tillakaratne Dilshan. Both have been in exceptional form over the past year, and during IPL 2009, AB de Villiers' incredible century against Chennai (105 not out off 54 balls) was only denied the honour of being the innings of the tournament because Adam Gilchrist blitzed 85 off 35 balls in the semi-finals - ironically against Delhi itself. And then, lurking lower down the order is Dinesh Karthik, who himself played many a useful hand in IPL 2009.

In fact, for most of the tournament last year, Delhi played and looked like the favourites they were. However, they were undermined by the indifferent form of their dynamic opening duo. Although Sehwag and Gambhir had both come into IPL 2009 as the most feared opening pair in world cricket, this year they have greatly increased the aura about them. Both of them have enjoyed fantastic years, and with Sehwag sometimes treating Test cricket as if it was a Twenty20 match, they have taken aggression to another level.

The other sour note struck in the Delhi campaign in 2009 was the treatment meted out to Glenn McGrath. Delhi did not deem it fit to even give the all-time great a single game - even after they had qualified for the semi-finals. After his sterling show in IPL 2008, where he showed that whether retired or not, he was the most difficult bowler to get away, his exclusion left a sour taste in the mouths of fans, and left many who had eagerly wanted to see McGrath renew old rivalries with the likes of Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly et al, and start possibly new ones with former team-mates Matthew Hayden or Shane Warne, sorely disappointed.

However, the man who kept McGrath out more than justified his inclusion. Dirk Nannes has only grown during the past year, and has developped into a genuine quick, capable of rattling batsmen with pace alone. In addition to Nannes, Delhi have also signed on the up-and-coming Wayne Parnell, with veteran Ashish Nehra always there. Even though all three are left-arm quicks, they are all such different bowlers from each other that the Delhi attack will not seem uni-dimensional.

Amit Mishra and Daniel Vettori complete a high-quality bowling attack. In fact, the only reason Delhi's bowling is not talked about much is because of their awesome batting might.

Delhi's second rung India players are also handy customers - particularly Rajat Bhatia, Avishkar Salvi and Pradeep Sangwan. The only international players who will not be available to them throughout the tournament are Daniel Vettori - who is an admittedly big loss, and Paul Collingwood - who is a good players, but wasn't good enough to break into the first eleven at any point during the previous IPL. They will have Nannes, Parnell, AB de Villiers, Dilshan and Warner available throughout, and no team can expect a breather against a weakened Delhi side.

Their likely eleven looks formidable on paper: Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, David Warner, AB de Villiers, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Dinesh Karthik, Rajat Bhatia, Amit Mishra, Pradeep Sangwan/Avishkar Salvi, Ashish Nehra, Dirk Nannes/Wayne Parnell.

When Vettori becomes available, he could take Warner's place or if Delhi decide to strengthen their bowling in the initial matches, Parnell and Nannes could both play while Warner would sit out. Either way, the team will still pack a hell of a punch.

Delhi look like an almost sure-fire bet to make the semi-finals for the third time in a row. After that they can hope for some magic from Sehwag/AB de Villiers/Dilshan to ensure that they do justice to their pre-tournament favourite billing.

Key Players' Timelines

Players	Available from	No. of matches they will play
Paul Collingwood	25th March	9 (will miss 5)
Daniel Vettori	1st April	6 (will miss 8)