Many squares checked in the near-perfect game of Delhi Capitals

Shreyas Iyer struggled to choose which of his two disciplines, hitting or bowling, made a difference in this game. That’s right. Barring a brief period between the two strategic timeouts in the early innings, when Mr. Ebb sat next to Dr. Flow, Delhi Capitals gave a glorious demonstration of near-perfect T20 play, emphatically marking the boxes they had drawn. by themselves against their fellow pioneers Royal Challengers Bangalore.

So what did they do so well against Virat Kohli & Co?

Hack Chahal and Saini in PowerPlay

Heading into the contest, the Capitals had the lowest PowerPlay score rate (6.3) of all teams. Coach Ricky Ponting revealed in a flash interview during the game that the team was specifically told before the KKR game in Sharjah to start maximizing PowerPlay with the bat. Doing so again involved taking on RCB’s two best attacking bowlers, Yuzvendra Chahal and Navdeep Saini, both of whom have become central to Kohli’s plans to attack on top.

Before Saini could get into the attack here, Prithvi Shaw had whipped Isuru Udana for three leg-side limits to inject early oomph into the innings. Shikhar Dhawan then welcomed his fellow state by drilling him past additional coverage before Shaw made room to make a full 143km / h delivery for a tone-defining six over additional coverage.

Kohli replaced Saini with Chahal and saw his leggie cut by four immediately. Chahal, as is his custom, threw the next, hoping to induce a punch through the line. Instead, Shaw cleared his front leg and called him out for six years. Dhawan added another four and two and RCB’s two bowling wins were taken for 32 runs of his two overs. Despite another excellent PowerPlay bowling display from Washington Sundar (3-0-17-0), the Capitals had 63 on the board before fielding restrictions were lifted.

Win the cat and mouse of the ‘dimensions’ during the death overs

The mid-inning phase, where Delhi has had the best scoring rate (8.9 RPO to date), saw them lose 3 of 54 in eight overs. RCB continued to use the skewed dimensions of the outfield at this Dubai course to good effect, getting Iyer caught at the long limit in front of a bowler the Delhi captain copes well with: Moeen Ali. Saini came back for his second over in hopes of bringing the lead home and bowed to a yorker off the stump that Marcus Stoinis could do little more than a dead bat. Now aware of the plans for the bowling alley, Stoinis camped deeper into the fold and crawled to his stump when the next delivery arrived. This adjustment helped him target the short leg side limit for a six.

His fast bowler’s ego skyrocketed, Saini threw two faster balls and was dismissed with disdain: once over his head for four and again past the short third man, with the trigger prior to the ball of Stoinis and the long levers that left nothing out of reach. Saini’s quest for the perfect fast yorker even saw him throw full pitches and also a straight beamer to Stoinis, which only served to turn on the generally great Aussie.

Rishabh Pant joined the cat and mouse from the other end, entering the line to assist deliveries to and over the smaller boundary on the leg side. Saini’s three overs led to Delhi 48 races and Stoinis’s turbocharged half-century led the team to 196, a total that AB de Villiers would say was at least 20 over par.

Use the Ashwin-Axar duet to drown

Sachin Tendulkar had predicted on the entry break that the use of the roller would help to catch the spinners until the dew (if any) settled later. The pitch had grip and it had spin. Delhi had R. Ashwin and Axar Patel, enough turning skills to make hay. Ashwin beat the third. Devdutt Padikkal had been practicing how to start an entry against side effects on KIOC networks. But Ashwin is a different fish. He threw a slower and wider one at the young southpaw, forcing him to drag his work, and instead of hitting long, Padikkal found the only man parked in the middle of the wicket.

Axar, a master of darts, saw what the surface offered and slowed his pace by at least 10 km / h. A ball caught and passed Kohli. Finch’s grew smaller and kissed its outer edge on the way to the doorman. In all, Ashwin and Axar threw 18 point balls, hitting just three limit balls and returning 8-0-44-3 figures when Yuzvendra Chahal didn’t even complete his quota of four overs.

The Protea Pace to close it

While Saini was obsessed with his yorker, Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje proved the short 8 meters of good length to be the camping spot for a paced bowler. Shooting in front of the squad against speeds above 140 would carry inherent risks for the best of hitters. Rabada might have had Finch twice on the first switch, but he’d softened him up enough for another bowler from Delhi to attack him. Nortje landed a ball to soar abruptly over De Villiers, who missed his shot. On a track that had little for fast men, the two South African fast bowlers combined to take 6 of 46 between them. Four of those lands were accomplished by hitting the court hard and occasionally running your fingers over the ball.

Rabada (4 of 24) running down the lower middle order fighting the increasing pace of the required race meant that Delhi Capitals not only won, but won handsomely by a 59-race margin. It was important for them to double their dominance, especially in light of the 2019 season where they had as many points as the top two in the league phase, but they finished third in run rate, denying them the route it offered them. two cracks in the final.