The destination has changed and we are in the second half of the tournament, every team has played at least a game and SRH still struggling to click as a team. DC move to the top of the table with seven wins in nine matches and in a comfortable situation moving forward. In this piece, we look at what went wrong for SRH and how DC made it to another victory this season.
Opening Issues and Middle Muddle for SRH
The attacking opener Jonny Bairstow pulled out from the second leg which was a big blow for SRH as their other star player Warner has been struggling to score runs at a decent pace. A strike rate of only 108 further increases the pressure on the middle order who themselves have not been in any good touch. SRH needs a good 2nd or 3rd wicket partnership and set up a platform for the coming batsman. All other SRH batters apart from Abdul Samad have a strike rate of less than 123, everyone comes in after a fall of a wicket takes 3-4 balls to find a rhythm and the pressures keep on increasing.
It is often said that in spite of the powerplay and the entertaining death overs, matches are more often decided in the middle phase of an innings ( Overs 7-15). The no 3,4 & 5 of any team are the core of the line-up and yet again it failed for SRH. There is no lack of experience in Williamson, Pandey, and Jadhav. The combined score of this middle order was 38(50). It can be said, this was where the match was lost and SRH were never able to recover from that
SRH lost Warner in the first over by the end of 10 overs they were 61-3 with Williamson back in the pavilion. Though SRH has a good bowling line-up, they too need a decent score on the board to execute their skills. Good cameos from Samad and Rashid Khan took SRH to 134 at the end of 20 overs. When the best partnership in an innings is 31(30 ) the struggle of the batting line-up is quite evident from the numbers themselves.
Pacers Shine for DC
In the last two games at the venue, 25 wickets were taken by pacers and only two by spinners. DC has probably the second-best pace attack after MI. The South African duo of Rabada and Nortje and the young Indian pacer Avesh Khan who has been in the race for the Purple Cap again proved their worth by picking up five more wickets in today’s match. The rise of Avesh Khan and his ability in the death overs have given the freedom to Rishabh Pant to use Rabada in the middle phase of the innings and pick up wickets as soon as a partnership starts to develop.
Good Outing for Shreyas Iyer
2021 has not been good for Shreyas Iyer, after being away from cricket due to a shoulder injury he was ruled out of IPL 2021 and just a few weeks back dint find a spot in the Indian T20 WC squad. In the absence of Iyer, Rishabh Pant was made the captain and he will continue to do so even after the return of the previous captain who took them to the finals in the last season. During his innings of 47(41), Iyer crossed 4000 runs in this format of cricket and looked solid on the crease. DC will be hoping he gets, even more, better which makes them the favourites for the IPL Trophy.
Conclusion
A target of 135 was never a big task for the DC batting line-up. Both the openers are in the Top five run-getters in this season and Dhawan also has the Orange cap with him after the completion of his innings. Rishabh Pant played a quick 35 run cameo to avoid any negative atmosphere in the dressing room especially after what happened last night and doubt over whether March Stoinis could bat if a situation arises. Stoinis had some injury concerns and stopped in between his 2nd over and did not return after that. This probably was the only negative for DC on this game day and they will be hoping for the player to return to full fitness.