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Night of the Devils
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16 Apr 2010, 02:07:41 PM
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| Posted by VB Chandrasekar |
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After riding the Knights, we fell to the Devils. It was a match we should have sealed, considering the home advantage, but we have given hopes to other semi-final contenders. From here, we head to Dharmasala and hopefully, the great Dalai Lama will clear the confusion on the points table!
Delhi Daredevils, despite not playing Vettori, covered up well by getting their combination right and did everything spot-on, including bowling changes and taking timeout when their captain was suffering from dehydration. This is where the Super Kings erred, much to the disappointment of the large and enthusiastic crowd that had turned up at Chepauk hoping for a thumping win.
Thumping win it was against the Knight Riders because two local lads took the responsibility – Ashwin with the ball and Vijay continuing with his good form. Murali had a bad day against the Knights and that possibly forced changes in the composition of the team for last night’s game.
Hindsight tells us we needed another match-winner in the bowling department. Defending a small score of 112, Ashwin and Bollinger, who has become the darling of the crowd, raised our hopes only to find Gambhir and Manhas put up a professional display. That’s when we realised we were short by one more quality spinner.
I am always skeptical of playing more than two back-to-back games on the same surface. The Daredevils obviously backed themselves with this knowledge which was very evident in the way they chose the team.
All this while, Delhi, easily one of the best teams in the competition, couldn’t get their act together because the top four didn’t fire and they didn’t have Nannes for a few games.
Just when chips were down in a crunch game, they were obviously the more desperate team.
On the contrary, Super Kings were providing a bowler-friendly pitch and realised soon they also needed the batsmen to deliver. Stars like Haydos and the captain himself have not fired in the expected manner.
It is difficult to step out of the air-conditioned box because everyone around was asking the uncomfortable question. It got to the extent where two ladies in the adjacent enclosure and huge fans of the Super Kings, knocked on the glass partition, gained my attention by gesticulating as if asking me “what kind of team have you selected?”
In a way, I thought they were echoing the sentiments of other Super Kings fans. All I could do was to shrug my shoulders as like anyone else, I too was helpless as the match slipped away from us.
From the night we hunted the Knights to the night we fell prey to the Devils, we go into the last game with the full knowledge that we are a very good team, capable of finishing in top four, but are walking on thin ice.
Looking back at the games we have lost and going into the next, the only thing that is to our advantage is the Net Run Rate. Had Viru fired and Warner smashed us, our NRR would have gone into the negative.
Questions may be asked on the composition of the team and the poor batting display, but it is best left unanswered.
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