Capitals’ bowling gamble backfires in the last over
MUMBAI: Delhi Capitals have already been a far improved team than what Delhi Daredevils were. Call them what you will, the Delhi franchise are yet to lay their hands on IPL silverware in the league’s 14-year history. They decided they had to be the ones to make the bold moves against three-time champions CSK in Qualifier 1 in Dubai on Sunday. In the absence of their big impact player Marcus Stoinis, Delhi went for the bowling allrounder Tom Curran over the inexperienced batting allrounder Ripal Patel.
Curran returned impressive figures of 3/29, but called in to bowl the final over ahead of Kagiso Rabada, he failed to defend 12 runs.
The move had an inherent risk—putting extra burden on the top order to come good. Prithvi Shaw got off to a blazing start, but Shikhar Dhawan and Shreyas Iyer who should have eased into playing the anchor around him failed. The prospect of Patel, R Ashwin and Curran at 6-7-8 would have made the Delhi think tank feel uncomfortable. At 50/2 in the 6th over, in walked Axar Patel. At many levels, it was an unusual move. Patel’s stronger suit isn’t batting, certainly not in T20 cricket with a career strike rate of 125. He has had little batting opportunity and little success with 36 runs in 11 games this year, while he’s been up to his tricks with the ball, bagging 15 wickets before this game.
He was in there facing Ravindra Jadeja, the two being of similar make in India’s T20 World Cup squad. Patel is the better bowler of the two, and Jadeja is a far stronger striker with the bat. Here they were, two all-rounders from different pockets of Gujarat, to prove the worth of their multi-skills before they join hands for India.
Patel began by stealing a boundary off a Jadeja 9-run over. But how could MS Dhoni not have his counter-move ready? He introduced the sparingly used Moeen Ali as a match-up to counter Patel. Shaw continued on the rampage, but Patel couldn’t continue playing second fiddle. In the 10th over he didn’t quite connect a Moeen Ali off-spinner that didn’t turn, found more height than distance and holed out to long-on for 10.
Shaw had been flying at his end, scoring the first eight of 10 boundaries hit by Delhi. But keeping the ball down has never been Shaw’s way, often proving his undoing. After a blazing 34-ball 60, he lofted one off an open blade straight to long-off’s hands. Jadeja didn’t manage to dismiss Patel, but he saw the back of an on-song Shaw. In a high-pressure game, it was the kind of innings which if not ended could have punctured CSK’s confidence with more batting support around him.
Did Delhi try to be too cheeky by playing the extra bowler? With a fairly decorated bowling unit in pacers Avesh Khan-Anrich Nortje-Kagiso Rabada and spinners Patel-Ashwin, they possibly did. Captain Rishabh Pant and Shimron Hetmyer’s smart handling of the second battinghalf, scoring over 10 runs-perover in the death overs, spared them the blushes. But in the end it was not enough.