While the bowlers are busy bowling at the nets, Glenn McGrath is giving throw-downs to help Dinesh Karthik and Virender Sehwag get some catching practice. His name crops up at every team discussion, but Delhi Daredevils somehow believe there’s always next time for the Australian.

Chances are, however, that the $350,000-brand ambassador may get a game after all, and with his rusty shoulder kept immobile for the next 11 months at the ripe old age of 40, it could well be the last sighting of the human bowling machine.

His countryman Andrew McDonald and Delhi boy Yogesh Nagar finally got their opportunity at the Wanderers on Tuesday, leaving only McGrath from the Daredevils squad to get a game, along with other some familiar names — Charl Langeveldt, Makhaya Nitni, Kyle Mills, Nuwan Kulasekera, Mohammad Ashraful, Dilhara Fernando and Cameroon White — from the other franchises.

According to sources, Ashraful and Rahil Shaikh might get a game for Mumbai but it’s still unclear if Kolkata and Chennai will play Langerveldt and Ntini, who are the only two South Africans yet to play in the tournament. “We’ve sat around and talked about Langeveldt a number of times. It’s been the same sort of question, what’s the best balance of your side, who can we actually pick to win the game,” Buchanan said after Kolkata gave Mashrafe Mortaza his first chance last week.

There are a bunch of unused domestic players across teams. Uday Kaul, Amanpreet Singh and Ryan Ninan (Kings XI); Abhinav and Arjun Yadav (Deccan Chargers); Palani Amarnath and B Arun Karthick (Chennai Super Kings); Jude Singh and Rahil Shaikh (Mumbai Indians); S Aravind, Saurabh Bandekar, Udit Patel, R Suteesh and Jitendra Patil (Bangalore Royal Challengers); and Abdulahad Malik, Pushkaraj Chavan, Aditya Angle and Gajendra Singh (Rajasthan Royals), are all yet to make it to the playing XI.

... contd.