In a must-win game for DC, they were clinical in their performance with both bat and ball and produced a near-perfect game to hand RR a defeat by eight wickets. Mitchell Marsh was the star for DC as his all-round game was the backbone of this emphatic win. We look at some key moments from match 58 of the 2022 IPL.
Ashwin at 3, again!
After Jos Buttler got out early in the third over of the Powerplay, RR once again sent Ravichandran Ashwin at number three. Ashwin at three extends the short batting lineup of RR and also gives him an option to bat freely and to the best of his limited abilities with the bat in the T20 format.
Ashwin did more than RR would’ve hoped for. Not only did he provide his team with some much-needed momentum in the Powerplay – Ashwin scored 21 runs off 13 balls in the Powerplay – but he also anchored the innings and allowed Devdutt Padikkal to play freely. Ashwin ended up scoring his maiden T20 fifty but his inning, which was played at a strike rate of 131.57, was crucial on a double-paced pitch.
Kuldeep Yadav’s form a concern
In the first eight matches of this year’s IPL, Kuldeep Yadav was the star of DC and had redeemed himself by picking up 17 wickets at an average of just 14.1 at 8.09 RPO. However, since his amazing match against his old team, KKR, where he picked up figures of 4/14, Yadav’s form has nosedived.
Since the KKR game, Yadav has picked just a single wicket in 13 overs across four games at an economy rate of 10.15 runs per over. One of the reasons behind his poor form could be his bowling speed and the pitches drying up. Even against DC, his average speed was just around the 83 KPH mark, and on dry surfaces, this speed makes it easier for batters to negotiate him. Yadav might want to try and go back to bowling a bit quicker, a plan that was doing wonders for him and his team in the first half of the tournament.
David Warner – The anchor
Before the game against RR, for all batters to have played at least 50 balls in the Powerplay in this year’s IPL, David Warner had the best strike rate of 163.3. Warner is usually the aggressor in any team he plays for and sets the tempo of the innings. But on a dry surface with batting collapses in the previous games on his mind, Warner dropped anchor.
Warner’s strike rate against DC in the Powerplay was just 100, as he had to curb himself against some good bowling from Trent Boult and Prasidh Krishna. However, Warner ensured that he kept rotating the strike, which allowed Mitchell Marsh, who by then had set his eyes and started to free up, to take on the bowling, while he stayed at one end.
From being on 27 off 29 balls to finishing the innings unbeaten on 52 off 41 balls, Warner played the role of the anchor to perfection, which helped DC chase down a tricky total with utmost ease.