As Kings XI Punjab slowly but surely took apart the Delhi Daredevils’ batting on Sunday afternoon, one sat perplexed as to what was happening. Was the pitch acting up again, as has been quoted widely over the past week? Or was it simply that the Kings XI side decided to turn up on the day and Delhi (the team that is, for the fans were present in huge numbers) simply didn’t bother to? 
It couldn’t have been the pitch. Anil Kumble called it unfit for T20 cricket but that sounded like sour grapes after his side failed to chase 180-plus in 20 overs. Yes, on the same pitch, Delhi had racked up that big a score. And against Kings XI too, they were 40-odd in only 4 overs before two quick run-outs destroyed their innings. It couldn’t have been the pitch, no.
Then it surely must have been demons in the minds of Gautam Gambhir’s men, confirmed by their miss against a nearly half-rested Mumbai Indians side. It should have been an easy haul of two points and progress through to the semis. Instead they now sit on twelve points with five other teams and with everything to play for. By the way, one of their matches is at Delhi against the Deccan Chargers and the pitch curator at the Kotla might already be fearing for his job.
An interesting statistic was thrown up on television as Mumbai batted at the Brabourne stadium. Sachin Tendulkar averages 69 when his team has won this season and only in the thirties when they lost. He got out for an exact 30 on the day and Delhi would have felt good about it indeed. So good that for nineteen overs they controlled proceedings in a manner that suggested they could chase 160-plus. That is until Kieron Pollard decided this was the moment when he would pay back the Ambanis’ investment.
45 runs off 13 balls – 25 of them coming in the last over meant that 160 became 183 and the momentum was lost. The chase seemed okay until the seventh over when the twin departure of Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag spoiled it all, and there was no recovery from there on. Come to think of it, this has been the story of the Daredevils’ tournament – their strong batting line-up has just not lit up this IPL. The names of Tilakratne Dilshan and AB de Villiers along with Sehwag and Gambhir are missing from the top run-getters chart.
If Delhi were dealing with devils, the Kolkata Knight Riders probably had monsters in their minds. Sourav Ganguly had let it rip after their last defeat that the side didn’t merit a place in the semis the way they have bowled and fielded so far. Today their batsmen joined the list in showing how inconsistent play cannot get you any further than the league stage for three years running now. The game was all but over when the first four wickets fell for a mere 19 runs on the board and Chennai cantered along just fine in the chase of 140.
What helped their case was the absence of Kolkata’s frontline spinners on a turning pitch – Ajantha Mendis and Murali Kathik – both having impressed in the earlier matches. The fast clip at which Suresh Raina scored meant that although the Super Kings do have 12 points like Delhi, Bangalore, Deccan and Rajasthan, they are now second in the table thanks to a killer run-rate. All teams have two more matches each to play and so the battle for semis is not over by any chance. Just so you know, with all permutations and combinations possible, run-rate is going to play a major factor from here on and Chennai have done themselves a huge favor while Delhi seem lost at the moment.
This article was first published at www.cricketworld.com.
