Delhi Daredevils: Common sense batting, but predictability

Posted in Indian Premier League (IPL)  by Mangesh Wagh
May 18th, 2009

Instead of saying, these two are likely keys for success here onwards in IPL, the more appropriate sentence would be - lack of any of these two is potentially costly: common sense and unpredictability. By English meanings of the terms, both sound contradictory, however in the context of the on-field cricket action, they are not.
I am fairly inspired by the common sense cricket displayed by the Delhi Daredevil’s duo of Dilshan and AB de Villiers against Rajasthan Royals on 17th May. Though RR’s butterfingers and sloppy fielding helped DD, it was pleasing to see the assurance with which ABD & Dilshan paced their innings. This is exactly what Rajasthan Royals and some other teams lacked in IPL 2. Watson’s absence on one side, but what has really hurt Rajasthan Royals is Smith’s failure and lack of a batsman who can take up similar role.
If we look at Royal Challengers Bangalore, leave Taylor’s heroics aside, they also lacked assuring batting performances. Though Mumbai Indians had Duminy, a lot of ‘uncommon’ sense around him prevented MI from doing well. On the same factor, Kings XI Punjab disappointed us a lot as they had the best people to play such cricket – Sangakkara & Jayawardene. The later did not play a couple of matches due to injury where the former was not in his usual sorts for most part of the tournament.
Though Delhi looks good on the common sense batting front – thanks to ABD & Dilshan, the potential threat for DD is predictability. This team has become a set of fairly predictable people and if the pattern continues, they are likely to throw all away in semi finals. All good wins and great performances won’t count then. Your predictability allows your opposition to have a good plan against you. Off course, the way Sehwag plays is very predictable but on his day, it just doesn’t matter whether you have a plan against him or not. Still, it makes a big difference in the moral with which opposition team takes the field. If we see, Munaf Patel was looking extremely confident to take on Gambhir & Sehwag, and he got both of them. He kept bowling short and on-body to Sehwag, he almost knew that Gambhir would try to step out every now and then. The problem for Delhi is – I and you also know how Sehwag, Gambhir, Dilshan, ABD and Dinesh Karthik would approach the batting. This, I feel, may go against DD (unless Sehwag does what he can).
There is at least one answer available for Delhi Daredevils batting – Warner. I think, he is a ‘must’ inclusion in big matches and then top 3 can be shuffled. It is not a bad idea to have Sehwag at 3 looking at the pattern of success of slow bowlers in the middle overs. Or even if Sehwag opens, he might just remember how Gambhir and himself approached last T20 World Cup. India’s typical score in first 5 overs used to be 25 or 30 for no loss. 30-35 for no loss is better score than 45 for 2 in first 6 overs.
On Delhi’s bowling, Nehra-Nannes-Sangwan-Mishra have done great job. But still, Nehra & Nannes are again 2 predictable bowlers, especially Nannes. And we know how worse can Nehra’s bad day be.
The word ‘predictable’ is an alarm for Delhi Daredevils.

5 Responses to “Delhi Daredevils: Common sense batting, but predictability”

  1. Amit Navale Says:

    I feel we all have started beliving 25-30 for no loss is good score for first six overs mainly because of mindless batting by almost all teams so far. Most of the teams had their openers struggling, only Deccan and to some extent Chennai were good at the top.But if we can have 100 runs in first 15 in 50 overs match , target of 50 should not be difficult to acheive in first six.The main reson why teams are conservative at the top because things went horribly wrong for them in couple of games when they went hard at it.
    But I strongly feel you need to assign sheet anchor role to couple of batsman, keep them floating in middle order and others should play natural game. Going Hard at the top is very important perticularly due to status of pitches in Africa, its end of season and scoring at death overs might not be that easy. its important to take calculated risks at the top, dictate the pace of the game , and get opposition under pressure. Easier said than done…..

  2. Amit Navale Says:

    Warner for me is the key for Delhi, But keeping vettori out in big matches might be difficult. Not only bowling but his contribution with bat will be handy lower down. He brings sort of maturity to delhi’s unit. Tough call between him and warner isnt it .

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