Staring at early exit after their sixth loss in eight games, bottom-placed Delhi Daredevils, under new skipper Shreyas Iyer, will have to treat each IPL game as a virtual knockout, starting with their clash against Rajasthan Royals in Delhi on Wednesday.
After Gautam Gambhir stepped down as captain following a string of losses, Iyer was left with the responsibility of guiding the team to the play-offs and the young skipper did score a 40-ball unbeaten 93 to power his side to a massive 55-run win over Kolkata Knight Riders to renew hopes of a turnaround.
But Monday’s 13-run loss to Chennai Super Kings almost dashed all hopes of a comeback and Iyer has an uphill task of inspiring his team in the remaining matches to salvage any hopes of staying alive in the tournament.
Despite a 45-ball 79 from Rishabh Pant and an unbeaten 31-ball 54 from Vijay Shankar, Delhi fell short by 13 runs against Chennai’s 211-4. Iyer and Pant have done the bulk of the scoring for Delhi, amassing 306 and 257 runs respectively so far and the onus would be on the duo to lead the batting unit.
Among the bowlers, Trent Boult has been among the wickets, claiming 11 so far, but he doesn’t get consistent support from the rest. It has resulted in their failure to defend totals, putting their batting under pressure.
Rajasthan Royals, on the other hand, are placed fifth in the table with six points from seven matches. Ajinkya Rahane’s team has been inconsistent this season as most times a win has been followed by a loss and they will also have to find a way to stem the rot if they have to make it to the play-offs.
Their failure to chase down a target of 151-7 against Sunrisers Hyderabad saw Rajasthan Royals lose the match by 11 runs. It was despite Rahane scoring a 65 and Samson hitting a 40 as they didn’t get support from other batsmen.
Rahane and Samson have been their best batsmen this season but the inconsistency Ben Stokes and Jos Butler has affected their performances.
Among the bowlers, pacer Jofra Archer has done well to claim six wickets in the two matches that he has played so far. But RR’s spinners Shreyas Gopal and K Gowtham have failed to bother the batsmen much, taking five wickets each.
Who said what
Vijay Shankar, Delhi Daredevils:
“We, as a team, are doing well but it is the small things which is changing the entire result of the game. We were chasing 80 from six overs or something against Chennai, we got close to the target, lost by 13 runs. We tried our best and we would look to move forward from this and look to do better and build ourself into a good team.”
Trivia
Ajinkya Rahane has scored more runs against the Delhi Daredevils than against any other IPL opponent. His record against DD reads: 16 Matches, 677 Runs, 61.55 Average.
In the seven matches so far this, RR’s opponents have only managed opening partnerships of 6, 0, 4, 1, 50, 1 & 17.
The Rajasthan Royals have taken the fewest wickets among all teams; they’ve only managed a total of 33 wickets in their 7 matches.
The Rajasthan Royals have forged the fewest 50-plus partnerships this season – 5.
Head-to-head
Overall: Matches – 17, Delhi Daredevils won – 6, Rajasthan Royals won – 11
At the Feroz Shah Kotla Ground: Matches – 6, Delhi Daredevils won – 3, Rajasthan Royals won – 3
The Rajasthan Royals have prevailed in their last 7 matches against the Daredevils. The last time DD got the better of the RR was in 2012.
Teams
Delhi Daredevils: Shreyas Iyer(C), Rishabh Pant, Glenn Maxwell, Gautam Gambhir, Jason Roy, Colin Munro, Mohammed Shami, Amit Mishra, Prithvi Shaw, Rahul Tewatia, Vijay Shankar, Harshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Shahbaz Nadeem, Daniel Christian, Jayant Yadav, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Trent Boult, Manjot Kalra, Abhishek Sharma, Sandeep Lamichhane, Naman Ojha, Sayan Ghosh, Liam Plunkett, Junior Dala.
Rajasthan Royals: Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Ankit Sharma, Anureet Singh, Jofra Archer, Stuart Binny, Aryaman Birla, Jos Buttler, Dushmantha Chameera, Prashant Chopra, Shreyas Gopal, Krishnappa Gowtham, Heinrich Klaasen, Dhawal Kulkarni, Ben Laughlin, Mahipal Lomror, Sudhesan Midhun, Sanju Samson, Jatin Saxena, D’Arcy Short, Ish Sodhi, Ben Stokes, Rahul Tripathi, Jaydev Unadkat.
(With PTI and iplt20.com inputs)