IPL 2019, Match 5, DC vs CSK: 3 mistakes that cost Delhi the match

The fifth game of IPL 2019 saw a rekindling of the CSK vs DC rivalry. The fans expected a thriller, as both the teams had kicked off their journey to the title with exceptional wins.

The venue for this match was the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium in Delhi.

The proceedings commenced with Delhi winning the toss and making the decision to bat first, as most skippers would on the Kotla pitch. The Delhi team banked heavily on their star-studded batting lineup, which had brought down Mumbai Indians in their opener.

But on this day, the Delhi team displayed a poor performance with the bat and scored just 147-6 in 20 overs. The target was quite easily achievable for Dhoni's men, as they chased it down with 6 wickets to spare

Here is a look at the reasons which led to the downfall of Delhi Capitals:

#1 Inexperienced captaincy by Shreyas Iyer

Shreyas Iyer

The pressure of defending a low target had Shreyas Iyer in a fix, and the lack of experience got the better of him. This was noticeable right from the beginning, as the opening pair of bowlers weren't bowling according to the field placements. That gave CSK's top order the ideal start that they were looking for in the powerplay overs, as they put up a total of 58 runs on the board.

The amateurish captaincy continued as Iyer went on to finish Keemo Paul's spell, instead of the frontline pacer of the pack Kagiso Rabada. This proved to be a really bad decision, as it left Rabada to defend a mere two runs in the final over.

The batting department wasn't successful either, due to the lack of planning and execution on the field. Even after scoring a quick 20 runs in the first two overs, the middle overs saw the pace of scoring get too low - which ultimately hurt the team's chances of putting up a big total.

#2 An unusually slow innings by Shikhar Dhawan

Shikhar Dhawan struggled throughout his innings

The Gabbar of the side scored a flashy *51* runs, but these runs came at a pretty high price. He amassed his half-century in 47 balls. This slowed down the momentum, causing a bit of pressure on the other batsmen who followed him.

Ultimately the flow of run scoring was lost, owing to which the batsmen lost their wickets to the bowling of Dwayne Bravo, who was bowling great cutters and slower ones. The shot selection wasn't appropriate by the batsmen either.

The middle order failed to live up to the expectations as Rishabh Pant and Colin Ingram fell prey to Bravo, while Keemo Paul couldn't manage to open his account in the match. This left the tail-enders with a lot to do, and they met the same fate as the ones before them.

The batsmen limped along to eventually finish with a barely par score of 147.

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#3 Poor bowling and spat with Shane Watson

Shane Watson

This was another primary reason for the downfall of the Delhi team - they couldn't manage their bowlers' overs efficiently. They ended up in a suffocating situation where the lead bowler Kagiso Rabada had just an obligatory two runs to defend in the last six balls against the best chasing team in the history of the IPL.

This effect was also observed during the initial powerplay overs, where the bowlers showered the batsmen with too many short-pitched deliveries, giving away easy runs and allowing the opposition to get into a high run-scoring tempo.

The situation worsened even further when Shane Watson squabbled with the DC bowling unit, which caused them to lose their discipline and focus. The effect on the CSK batsmen was exactly the reverse; the were already above the asking run rate, and had no problem in maintaining that after the mid-match argument.

The mismanaged bowling attack together with some questionable field placements were two of the significant glitches made by the Delhi contingent during the day's play.

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