Delhi Daredevils' Bizzare Strategies

Delhi Daredevils have failed to make the finals of the DLF IPL 2012 as they lost the 2nd qualifier against the Chennai Super Kings. Delhi Daredevils who were the table toppers this year looked like they were short of big match temperament as they made many strategic mistakes in both the playoffs particularly in the 2nd qualifier. And you can't afford to make such mistakes in the knockout stages.

Mistake no.1- The first big strategic mistake they made was in the first play off against the Kolkata Knight Riders. Chasing 163 runs for a win, they sent in Ross Taylor at no. 7 when only about 3 overs were left and Delhi needed 43 runs in those 3 overs. Now I completely failed to understand why they sent in such a good player like Taylor so late. Yes Taylor has not been in the best of forms but still a good player could have made a difference only if he had a decent number of balls to get in and score. Even more surprising was sending Negi and Rao ahead of Taylor and Pathan. And as a result Delhi could not chase the target.

Mistake no.2- Now in the 2nd qualifier a strong team like Delhi were expected to rectify the mistakes they made in the 1st qualifier. But instead they committed some more bloopers. Before the beginning of the match, they themselves reduced their chances of winning by deciding to leave out DLF IPL 2012's highest wicket taker Morne Morkel. Now how can you do that? Your best bowler, in fact the best bowler of the competition has been left to warm the bench. And the result was that Delhi allowed Chennai to score 222 runs. Irfan Pathan was reportedly injured so to replace him they needed an all rounder and the available all rounder was West Indian Andre Russell. And then for that they had to leave out a foreign player and so Morkel was left out. But is n't it wise to play your best bowler rather than a player who has played just 3 matches and has not done anything extraordinary in the competition so far. On the flat Chennai track, Morkel would have posed a greater challenge to the Chennai batting line up than any other bowler be it Aaron, Umesh yadav or Russell.

Mistake no. 3- Can you imagine Sehwag at no. 3? Certainly I can't. For a player who has batted at the no. 1 position for a decade and has opened the innings in all his IPL outings. I failed to deduce why Sehwag sent himself at no. 3. Yes Jayawardene is a good player and opens well too but was n't Sehwag in red hot form in this tournament a week back? Sehwag is that kind of player who could have set the tone for a mammoth chase by hitting a boundary off the very first ball. But for some reason he thought that he would be better off batting at no. 3. That to me showed that Delhi were not very confident going into this qualifier. They were doing too many things and changes and in the end that proved detrimental to their hopes of making the final.

Delhi have squandered a golden opportunity to win the DLF IPL 2012. They were one of the best teams this year and to not make the finals even after getting 2 chances is a shame to say the least. And Delhi Daredevils have only themselves to blame.