Published: May 23, 2016, 12:09 PM (IST)
Edited: May 24, 2016, 09:37 AM (IST)
What is required in order to qualify for the playoffs in IPL? A team needs to win 8 out of 14 matches. It does not sound that tough from the outset. But for Delhi Daredevils (DD), it seems impossible to reach that figure every season. Having finished at 9th, 8th and 7th respectively in past 3 seasons, Delhi Daredevils made a string of changes, shifting emphasis on youngsters and bringing in the ‘Wall’, Rahul Dravid as a mentor. The first half of IPL 2016 went smoothly, with 5 wins from 7 games. It seemed finally Delhi Daredevils (DD) will break their hoodoo and punch above their weight to compete for their maiden IPL title. But then, it remains outside their reach, and with 5 defeats in last 7 games, Delhi Daredevils (DD) fizzled out and ended the tournament at the 6th position in the IPL 2016 Points Table. The obvious question lies on where did it all go wrong. FULL CRICKET SCORECARD: Delhi Daredevils vs Royal Challengers Bangalore, IPL 2016 at Raipur
If retrospection is done, it will be noticed that the Delhi Daredevils (DD) think-tank erred in their decision making. It is unknown if it was coach Paddy Upton or skipper Zaheer Khan or mentor Dravid who were taking the call. But what is a definite thing is the fact there were far too many changes in the side, with ‘n’ number of combinations tried in batting order.
Delhi Daredevils (DD) began IPL 9 playing Quinton de Kock and Shreyas Iyer at the top. While de Kock proved his quality over the course of the tournament by scoring 445 runs in 13 games, his partner had an atrocious time in the middle, to say the least. Iyer, who had dazzled in IPL and in the Indian domestic tournaments in the recent past, had a nightmarish IPL 2016 scoring 30 in 6 innings. Since then, Mayank Agarwal, Sanju Samson and Rishabh Pant were used at the top. The lack of a formidable opening pair was among the key reasons behind the side’s batting failures. Every winning team is built around the opening pair, but for DD, they had no answer to it.
Even in the middle order, they have made far too many changes. For any team, the key positions are No. 3 and No. 4. But for Delhi Daredevils (DD), they struggled to find a designated player for these two positions. The likes of Samson, Karun Nair, Sam Billings, JP Duminy were all here and there, but to very little success. Even decisions like promoting Pawan Negi over hitters Carlos Brathwaite and Chris Morris, impacted heavily in last night’s defeat to Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). These moves have been tough to understand.
But what really caused their downfall was the squad rotation, or to put it better, taking the ‘horses for courses’ route. Delhi Daredevils (DD) made the most changes in IPL 2016. If you look at any successful team, the backbone of their success is a settled starting XI. But for some reason or another, Delhi felt otherwise. Coming on the back of a brilliant win against Gujarat Lions in their 7th match, Delhi Daredevils (DD) decided to rest key players like de Kock, Zaheer, and Morris for their next fixture against Rising Pune Supergiants (RPS). The loss in the game kick started their poor run. Now, why a team going through a winning run make so many changes would, is beyond logic.
Further, the likes of Brathwaite and Billings were severely underused. The West Indian all-rounder was the Man of the Match in his side’s win over Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), but was replaced for the next game. Removing a player, who is in-form, was another call tough to understand. The same can be said for Billings, who scored a half-century in his maiden game. Yet, he was only given further four games.
And finally, Delhi Daredevils (DD) showed way too much faith on the likes of Mohammed Shami and Negi, both of whom had terrible tournaments. Shami, expected to lead the bowling attack, took just 5 wickets in 8 games. What was even worse was the fact he had an economy rate of almost 10! And Negi, who was bought for Rs 8.5 crores in IPL 2016 auction, again had an awful tournament, scoring a mere 55 runs and scalping a solitary wicket in 8 games. Delhi Daredevils’ (DD) choice certainly looked like one of the worst-ever buys in IPL.
To sum it up, it was a mixture of poor team selection and poor decisions within the game which cost Delhi Daredevils (DD) a place in playoffs. The excess trust on young Indian batsmen combined with questionable management of foreign players was at show, mostly in the second half of IPL 9. While the side did improve many folds compared to their horrendous past, it will be safe to say Delhi probably blew away their best opportunity to qualify for playoffs. They only have got themselves to blame.
(R Narayan is a reporter with CricketCountry, and is an ardent cricket and football enthusiast (big Manchester United fan). Having followed cricket since 2003, he likes high scoring matches as well as good fast bowling. His Twitter handle is @RNarayan24nov)
