In the 15th over of the chase vs Delhi Capitals in their last league stage fixture of the Indian Premier League, Tim David arrived in the middle with the equation reading 66 off 33 balls. It wasn’t over for both Mumbai and Delhi as the game entered the business end. First ball of his innings, David chased a fullish delivery outside off and got beaten. A loud appeal for caught-behind was denied and Pant, despite having two reviews in the kitty, decided against going upstairs after a long chat with the bowler Shardul Thakur.
No damage was done off the next delivery as David comfortably defended it. Action and attention soon shifted to the delivery where appeal was turned down, and review wasn’t taken, as replays suggested a massive nick. Before Delhi could come to terms with the strategic blunder they committed in the middle, David switched to beast mode and smashed 6,1,4,4,1,6,6,6 off the next eight deliveries he faced. The freak knock (11-ball 34) was ended by Thakur in the 18th over but the equation now read a comfortable 15 off 13 deliveries. Mumbai sealed the deal with five deliveries to spare and landed a knockout blow on Delhi who failed to advance to the knockouts stage.
Just like the DRS decisions in the crucial league game, it was a season where Delhi did what they shouldn’t have and didn’t what they should have. The team had fair share of off-field troubles – COVID outbreak in the camp, Mitchell Marsh’s unavailability, Prithvi Shaw hospitalisation – but they had the resources, at least on paper, to go all the way but lacked consistency. After a thumping win in the season opener, the Pant-led unit was not able to retain momentum and had to wait for their 13th game of the season to register back-to-back wins (beat Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings in their 12th and 13th league game respectively).
The mega auction
Before the mega auction, Delhi Capitals were one of the few teams which retained core from their previous seasons. In Rishabh Pant, Anrich Nortje, Prithvi Shaw and Axar Patel had solid retentions and auctions were about filling the gaps around them, and they did that. In David Warner, Capitals found a perfect partner for Shaw at top of the order and bolstered their bowling department with signings of Khaleel Ahmed, Kuldeep Yadav, Chetan Sakariya and Shardul Thakur. Rovman Powell and Mitchell Marsh were other top acquisitions as the franchise went about sorting their Playing XI at the auction table itself.
While the first XI seemed sorted and intimidating, it was the Plan B where Delhi were found wanting. If not Warner, who? If not Shaw, who? What if one of the bowlers hit a lean patch? What if Marsh struggles to get going? Delhi were found wanting on this front as potential replacements weren’t quite up there when the team battled off-field troubles and had to deal with unavailability of star players, and first choice XI. Sarfaraz Khan impressed but the likes of Mandeep Singh and KS Bharat, who were tried in the league stage, didn’t have encouraging returns. In the middle order too, it seemed too much pressure was on Pant to bat deep as the others, read Lalit Yadav and Rovman Powell, weren’t at their consistent best. Powell arrived to the party after initial failures but didn’t deliver with the consistency Capitals would have liked from the West Indian.
Curious case of Pant
340 runs in 13 innings at a strike-rate of 151.78 aren’t bad numbers to be honest. They are about here and there, but not exactly where Delhi Capitals would have wanted. Every time Pant walked out to the middle, lack of clarity in thought was quite evident. Whether to go big, or bat deep. When he looked good, strange dismissals were in store and when he didn’t there wasn’t enough support from the other end. For majority of the season, Pant batted at No 4 for the Capitals. A crucial position to give direction to the game. Something Hardik Pandya did oh-so-successfully for Gujarat Titans. For Pant, however, it was more about the inability to convert those fluent starts into big ones as the left-hander failed cross the fifty-run mark. It certainly would have been a different story for the Capitals had the skipper converted those promising starts and, most importantly, had someone to do the job from the other end, on a consistent basis.
Kuldeep Yadav’s signing was the big story for Delhi Capitals. After warming the bench for most of the tenure with Kolkata Knight Riders, Kuldeep was definitely craving game time and in Delhi he found a franchise, and skipper, who backed him from the word go. The spinner lavished praise on Pant and management for consistent backing and helped him operate with the mojo of Kuldeep of the old. 21 wickets from 14 fixtures helped Kuldeep end the season at No 5 in the leading wicket-takers table and remained a strong contender for the purple cap for most of the competition. The chinaman reserved his best for old franchise Kolkata Knight Riders as he returned with figures of 4/14 and 4/35 in both the fixtures. The splendid run not only made him a mainstay in the Capitals XI but also helped him stage a return in Indian colours in the shortest format.
Mitchell Marsh’s all-round show, Prithvi-David at top of the order, Kuldeep with the ball, Thakur-Axar with the bat lower down the order, Khaleel with the ball and Powell’s arrival to the scene were plenty of positives for the Pant-led unit. Going forward, the team would now look to plug the gaps, especially in the middle order, and have options ready if the initial plan goes for a toss. Delhi had persisted with someone like Lalit Yadav for a long time in the season but returns of 161 runs from eight innings, at an ordinary strike-rate of 110.27 were far from what Delhi would have expected from the crucial number. KS Bharat and Mandeep Singh were tried when Shaw was out injured but they too didn’t look very comfortable in the middle. The likes of Axar and Thakur give enough explosive options lower down the order, late in the innings, and it will only help if Delhi sort their piece at top and middle of the order. Yes, the first XI looks sorted but what happens when the firsts aren’t the available options?
Quite clearly, it was a tough season for Delhi, especially after the off-field events hogging most of the limelight. Just like the attempt to withdraw from the fixture vs Rajasthan Royals, where captain Pant and assistant coach Pravin Amre staged an animated protest, due to the no-ball controversy, it was a year where Delhi were found desperate and short of ideas in crunch situations. When the teams assemble again next year, Delhi, with the current crop of players, would be raring to hunt in a pack and emulate their success in previous editions of the competition. They have the required resources and just need some fine-tuning to hit top gear.
