Glenn McGrath came into the Ferozeshah Kotla, put down his backpack and went straight to the warm-up area for a little jog. He furiously rotated his arm several times, as if shaking off the rust, took a new ball out of the box and bowled the first ball bang on the money — just short of a good length and shaping out. “You saw that?” he asked his team mates with a big smile plastered across his face.

McGrath, who at 40 is pushing the limits, arrived in Delhi on Thursday morning to fill in the blanks left by some high-profile withdrawals from the squad. During Thursday’s session, Virender Sehwag coined a new title for him — ‘The Golden Oldie’ — and McGrath promptly sent Sehwag’s middle stump flying across with a delivery that nipped back sharply.

There’s a definite temptation to give him space in the XI straightaway, but the Daredevils will take the call at the last moment, and probably even resist it all over again, banking on Ashish Nehra and Dirk Nannes (who will be playing against his regular side) when they play Victoria Bushrangers in their opening Group D match of the Champions League.

Team vs individuals

There’s plenty of interlocking within the two teams, both in the personnel and administrative blocks, but Friday’s contest could well be between a tight-knit unit and a set of individuals capable of taking the game by the throat.

There are few teams in the world that take the T20 format as seriously as the Victoria Bushrangers, who have won the T20 Big Bash four times and lost another final by one run. Victoria is pulled along by the likes of Brad Hodge, David Hussey, Cameron White, Andrew McDonald and Rob Quiney, who all chip in with critical knocks; Delhi, on the other hand, are powered by big-hitters such as Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Tillakaratne Dilshan.

... contd.