How did the young squad of Delhi Capitals fare this year?
DC came into this tournament after having quite a successful tournament last year where they finished 3rd among the teams having lost out on the final spot by a whisker.
They seem to have had quite a balanced squad this time around as well with the addition of Shimron Hetmyer, Marcus Stoinis, and Anrich Nortje (who incidentally was the last-minute replacement to Chris Woakes)
As expected Delhi Capitals started the tourney on a bang notching up one victory after the other where players like Prithvi Shaw, Shreyas Iyer, Shikhar Dhawan, and Marcus Stoinis put up sparkling batting performances while the bowling was spectacular with the combination of Kagiso Rabada and Nortje setting the stage on fire.
Nortje even bowled the fastest ball in tournament history clocking up a speed of 156.3 km/hr. Ashwin too put his hand up at crucial junctures while Axar Patel remained an unsung hero for DC.
The team was firing in unison and DC had netted 7 wins out of their first 9 matches. A playoff spot was just a victory away.
So were there any speed breakers in their journey?
Not just speed breakers it seemed as if there were heavy bumpers in their road to the playoffs since DC lost 4 successive games from there on and eventually won a crucial game against RCB to secure a Top 2 position in the points table.
All the Delhi players seemed to have lost form collectively with Shaw, Iyer, and Pant looking a pale shadow of themselves while the fast bowling too tapered off and it all seemed inexplicable.
Thankfully their big guns: Dhawan, Rahane, Rabada, Stoinis found a semblance of form which helped them to overcome the challenge presented by RCB and SRH, and they thereby qualified for the finals.
But their dream run came to a jarring halt when they ran into MI in the finals who showed absolutely no mercy towards DC and managed to beat them for the 4th time this season.
Star Performers:
Shikhar Dhawan: The southpaw had a fabulous year this season which saw him scoring more than 600 runs (a first for him). His feat of scoring back to back centuries in the IPL was unprecedented too.
Kagiso Rabada: He narrowly missed out on having the purple cap last year but he wasn’t to be denied this year. Rabada grabbed 30 wickets to top the bowling charts and was a major cog in DC’s wheel.
Axar Patel: He kept things tight with the ball, scored aggressively when the team needed him to. He was a star who went unnoticed among the other celebrated stars of IPL.
Disappointments:
Rishabh Pant: Apart from the fifty in the final, Pant didn’t seem his normal self and struggled for rhythm throughout the season. His form hurt DC badly and resulted in their loss of momentum.
Prithvi Shaw: One of the most celebrated young batting sensations of India, Shaw just like DC had a season of 2 halves. At the start, he was all bang and awesome, while the second half of the season turned out to be a nightmare for him.
Overall Verdict:
While DC would have loved to maintain the same form throughout the season but they ran out of steam just like RCB. But having broken the jinx of not making it to the finals ever, DC has made steady progress and should now build on both promise and potential.
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