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It was a game that triggered impulsive nail-biting and got the heart pumping fast towards the end. But, for a better part of the game, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) looked very much in control of the proceedings while Delhi Capitals (DC) kept making one mistake after another. While DC were able to tighten the screws in the end barring the match-winning six of Tripathi, there were a few reasons why they looked off-colour against Eoin Morgan’s side.
45 dot balls
Dot balls are golden for any bowling captain in T20 cricket. Playing dot balls is a serious crime in the format. On a pitch where boundaries were hard to come by for DC batters, playing 7.3 overs worth of dot balls turned out to be a major reason why they failed to post a winning total. Desperation to hit big shots on a difficult pitch instead of looking for ones or twos turned out to be the reason why DC batters panicked in the second half of the game.
Copying Morgan’s style of bowling changes
Pant used five different bowlers in the powerplay overs which is something Eoin Morgan typically does with his bowlers in the initial phase of the innings. The move clearly did not help DC defending a total of 135 as they gave away 51 runs from powerplay overs bringing down the scoring rate to just over six runs per over.
Sending Stoinis at no.3
Marcus Stoinis returned to the team after getting injured in the first match of second phase of the tournament. Sending Stoinis to bat at no.3 against a side which has three top-class spinners operating a slow pitch was clearly not the brightest of moves. As expected, the Australian all-rounder struggled and played too many dot balls putting the pressure on opener Shikhar Dhawan. He got out after scoring 18 runs from 23 deliveries. The inning had an impact on Shreyas Iyer as well who went for big shots from first ball instead of playing himself in. Iyer was clearly a better choice to bat ahead of Stoinis as he does well against the spinners and can accelerate well even after a slow start. Also, Stoinis was not fit to ball to compensate for Axar Patel, who was not having a great day at the office. Having the cushion of an extra bowler (preferably Tom Curran) like they had against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) could have solved Pant’s problems in the middle.
Dropped catches
DC fielders were not as agile as expected in the qualifier. There were two dropped chances in the innings. The first one was a half-chance of Venkatesh Iyer in the powerplay overs dropped by Kagiso Rabada off his own bowling. Rabada bowled the hard ball which hit high on the opener’s bat. The ball was not travelling fast and the Proteas speedster should have converted into a wicket. The left-handed batter was batting on 23 then and he went on to score 55 at a strike rate of 134.15. Later, in the 15th over of run chase R Ashwin dropped a sitter off Avesh Khan’s bowling in the third man region. Rana did not do much damage after that but a wicket there could have triggered the batting collapse a lot earlier. Apart from dropped the catches, there were a few misfields from the likes of Shimron Hetmyer and Shreyas Iyer as well which gave away crucial runs.
