IPL 2013: The debacle that was Delhi
Delhi played like a unit devoid of any confidence, thanks to their own collective form and their inability to compensate for the loss of Kevin Pietersen, and his replacement, Jesse Ryder. The drying up of runs from the blades of Mahela Jayawardene, the designated captain, and Virender Sehwag, the former captain, made matters worse. David Warner had his moments.
- Shashank Kishore
- Updated: May 21, 2013 05:14 PM IST
Poor form, injuries, questionable selections, failure to find the right team composition and inability to close out games meant Delhi Daredevils ended the Pepsi Indian Premier League 2013 with the wooden spoon for the second time in three years. That they could muster just three wins from 16 matches is hard to fathom, given that they were the first to qualify for the playoffs last year with the same nucleus of players.
Delhi played like a unit devoid of any confidence, thanks to their own collective form and their inability to compensate for the loss of Kevin Pietersen, and his replacement, Jesse Ryder. The drying up of runs from the blades of Mahela Jayawardene, the designated captain, and Virender Sehwag, the former captain, made matters worse. David Warner had his moments. But with very little support from Indian players, especially Unmukt Chand who was expected to do a lot more, the batting lower down looked wafer thin, which made it difficult for the bowlers to bail the team out time and again.
Collective batting failure
Eric Simons, the coach, admitted to being frustrated because the team continued to make the same mistakes over and over again. "We keep saying that we need to get our top three to the 12th over to lay a platform and accelerate from there," he said. "All teams do that. We just keep losing wickets at the wrong time. The batsmen have accepted responsibility for that. We haven't got through the first six overs without losing a wicket. We haven't got through the tenth over with one or two of the top three wickets."
Delhi's highest run-getter was Warner with 410 runs in 16 innings, while the tournament's top three run-getters aggregated an average of 662. Their next highest scorer was Jayawardene with 331 runs in 15 innings followed by Sehwag, who made 295 runs in 13 innings.
Ineffective bowling
The bowling attack, touted to be one of the more challenging units with Morne Morkel and Umesh Yadav as spearheads, didn't live up to expectations, and Irfan Pathan was patchy at best. With 7 wickets in 10 matches at an economy of over 8 an over, Morkel, who played such an influential part in Delhi's march to the playoffs last year, looked a pale shadow of himself. The other strike bowlers - Yadav, Pathan and Ashish Nehra - were returning from injury layoffs, making it difficult to strike the right balance.
Irfan and Nehra finished with 10 and 11 wickets respectively but were unable to create a lasting impression. Although Yadav had 16 wickets to show from as many games, he ended with the dubious record of having the second most expensive figures in IPL history (0/ 65 in 4 overs against Royal Challengers Bangalore). Ajit Agarkar, Roelof van der Merwe and Johan Botha didn't get enough opportunities to express themselves.
Bright spots
One of the positives was the performance of Shahbaz Nadeem, the crafty left-arm spinner. Used mostly as an attacking option, he was tactful and brought all his variations into play. Nadeem, who had helped Jharkhand reach the quarterfinal of the 2012-13 Ranji Trophy, picked up 9 wickets in 12 matches but what stood out was his average of 28.77 and an economy of less than 6 runs an over.
Another surprise package was Ben Rohrer, the Australian batsman who perhaps played more matches than he would have imagined when he was signed as replacement for the injured Varun Aaron. Prior to coming to India, Rohrer, playing for the Melbourne Renegades, had finished as the fifth highest run-getter in the Big Bash League 2012. That facilitated his Twenty20 International call-up for Australia.
A livewire on the field and capable of clearing the boundaries at will, he often came in to bat with the situation already out of hand on most occasions. In eight games, he struck a few cameos and made one fifty - the unbeaten 64 against Rajasthan Royals in Jaipur being his most destructive innings. He may have not set the stage on fire, but showed enough promise to be considered for the future.
Moments to cherish
The heartening sight right throughout the tournament was the crowds that packed the Feroz Shah Kotla game after game even as the losses piled up. The fans continued to cheer for their players and enjoyed a minor consolation when Sehwag launched a brutal assault against Mumbai Indians. A fine mix of timing and fierce ball-striking saw him smash an unbeaten 95 off just 57 balls to take Delhi to a nine-wicket win. The team also enjoyed two consecutive wins in their adopted home, Raipur, which hosted IPL matches for the first time this season.
From the players' point of view, the opportunity to interact with Sir Vivian Richards, who was signed on as a technical advisor midway through the tournament, left a lasting impression. The glee on Jayawardene's face when asked to describe his first interaction with Richards was priceless. "When he walked in to address the team for the first time, I was star struck to be honest," said a beaming Jayawardene. "I hadn't met him closely before, so it was great to speak to him about the game. He described to us the manner in which he went about the game and it looked so simple. I think just interacting with him, some of the youngsters, and even us can learn a lot."