IPL 2017, DD vs MI: 5 things that went wrong for Delhi Daredevils

The Delhi Daredevils once again suffered a massive collapse against the Mumbai Indians in front of their home crowd at the Feroz Shah Kotla as they were bowled out for a mere 66 runs.

Batting first, the Mumbai Indians smashed their way to a total of 212/3 riding on half-centuries from the West Indian duo of Lendl Simmons and Kieron Pollard. The Mumbai bowlers came out all guns blazing and struck at regular intervals to dismiss the Delhi side for a humiliating total of 66.

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There were many things that went wrong for the Daredevils over the course of the game. Let us take a look at five of them.

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#1 Inability to restrict Mumbai Indians’ openers

Despite having a world class bowling unit consisting of the likes of Zaheer Khan, Kagiso Rabada and Pat Cummins, Delhi could not get rid of Mumbai’s opening duo. Parthiv Patel and Lendl Simmons added 79 runs for the 1^st wicket in 52 balls and thus completely took the game away from the Daredevils right at the start.

It was Simmons who did the bulk of the scoring in the partnership as Parthiv played second fiddle, scoring only 25 runs in 22 balls. In his first game of IPL 2017, Simmons went hard right from the start as he smashed his way to a superb 66 runs in just 43 balls. The innings was star-studded with five fours and four towering sixes and completely took the life out of the Delhi bowlers.

#2 Failure to capitalise on the fall of wickets

Delhi failed to apply any pressure on Pollard

After Mumbai’s first wicket fell in the form of Parthiv Patel with the score reading 79 in the 9th over, Delhi should have tried to sneak in a couple of tight overs. However, they were quite undisciplined in their bowling approach as they failed to bowl the right lengths to the new batsman Kieron Pollard.

Pollard took full advantage and smashed them all around the park to accelerate the innings further. Delhi had another chance when Simmons departed in the 13^th over but again, they failed to dry up the runs as Pollard kept most of the strike and stitched together a 37-run stand with Rohit Sharma, who contributed just 10. Upon Rohit’s dismissal, Hardik Pandya walked out and started smashing the ball to all corners. He powered his way to an unbeaten 29(14) and propelled Mumbai to a score of 212/3.

#3 Early loss of Samson and Pant

Pant departed early

Delhi’s heroes from their last match, Sanju Samson and Rishabh Pant, both fell without troubling the scoreboard and this dented the home side’s hopes severely.

Delhi lost Samson (0) and Shreyas Iyer (3) in the first couple of overs and the scoreboard read 5/2. A good start was necessary to chase down such a big total and that was exactly what they did not get.

It was Samson who gave his side a good start in the previous match, smashing a quickfire half-century in their chase of a 200+ total. However, this time around, he perished off the first delivery of the innings as he gave away a simple catch to Lendl Simmons off the bowling of McClenaghan. Iyer was the next to follow on the last delivery of the second over as he gave away an easy catch to Harbhajan Singh off Lasith Malinga’s bowling.

Pant too fell soon after for a duck.

#4 Strategy to hold back Marlon Samuels

Samuels arrived at the crease with too much to do

Samuels has the ability to score at a brisk rate and also anchor the innings on the fall of early wickets. He has done that on numerous occasions in the past for the West Indies. Yet the Delhi team management made a shocking decision to hold him back until the fall of the fourth wicket.

By the time he walked out to bat, the pressure was immense and the Mumbai bowlers and fielders were high on confidence. Thus, Samuels succumbed to the pressure and was dismissed by Karn Sharma for just 1(5).

#5 Losing wickets at regular intervals

Karun Nair was Delhi’s top scorer

There was not a single batsman in the Daredevils side who had the patience, composure and technique to see off the Mumbai bowlers and chase down the target. All of them tried to bludgeon the Mumbai bowling attack, which is unarguably the best in the tournament, and hence perished cheaply.

It was only Karun Nair (21), Corey Anderson (10) and Pat Cummins (10) who registered double-digit scores. The spinners, Harbhajan Singh and Karn Sharma, accounted for most of the wickets as they claimed six for just 33 runs in 7.4 overs. Thus, Delhi were bowled out for just 66 in 13.4 overs.

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