IPL 2021 | Delhi Capitals Road to UAE: Rishabh Pant's men bring both fire and substance to the table

The Delhi Capitlas were a beast side in the last edition of the Indian Premier League and while batters thrashed the opposition bowling attacks, their bowlers rattled the batsmen with pace and flummoxed them with spin. However, their domination was limited to only six teams of the tournament and the only team that made them look like an inferior team that the points table and scorecards of other matches suggested were the Mumbai Indians. 

The Rohit Sharma’s men went on to win the final by thrashing the men from Delhi in back to back matches in the last edition of the league and left the Capitals with a big question of big match temperament before coming back for the next event.

There were not many chinks in their armour as they were rich with a well-balanced side and hence did not require too many changes for the 14th edition of the IPL.

However, they suffered a massive setback a few weeks before the tournament as their skipper Shreyas Iyer, who has had led quite a turnaround of the side after taking over the reins from Gautam Gambhir in 2018, dislocated his shoulder was knocked out of the tournament.

The Capitals were not disheartened by the absence of their captain and launched their campaign under an ever so dynamic captain in Rishabh Pant. The side established their ascendancy in the league and supremacy over other teams by winning as many as six games out of the eight played so far this season. 

In all likelihood, they are on the verge of qualifying for the next round and here we will look at their journey so far in this edition to find out what worked for them and what did not.

Flamboyant start

The Capitals started their campaign against the Chennai Super Kings and what a start they had to the new season albeit they did not have the trio of Iyer and a highly successful pace pair of Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje. 

Their newbies Avesh Khan and Chris Waokes got them to a perfect start by removing Faf du Plessis and Ruturaj Gaikwad inside three overs. The middle-order comprising of Moeen Ali, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu and Ravindra Jadeja propelled the Super Kings to a big score.

What followed from the Capitals while batting was nothing short of carnage for the Super Kings bowling attack as the opening pair of Shikhar Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw blasted their way to a 138-run partnership in the 14th over. There was no mercy for any kind of bowlers from the Super Kings and the Capitals chased down 189 runs with eight balls to spare and seven wickets intact.

Royal speed breaker

After a batting heist against the Super Kings, the Capitals were cock a hoop but their jubilation was short-lived as they hit a speed breaker in the next game against the Rajasthan Royals. Their flamboyant batting lineup was tied down by the subtle variations of Jaydev Unadkat, who single-handedly removed their top order and choked them before they could get a sighter.

None other than the skipper Pant could stick around for long or blast their way out of trouble for the Capitals to have a defending score on board. It was Pant’s 51 that took them to 147 in the end but it was not appearing enough on a batting-friendly pitch at the Wankhede Stadium.

Their pace bowling gave their all by sharing seven cheap wickets between them but the score was not too much for the Royals to not get it. David Miller did the job that Pant had done in the first half and defied the Capitals that night. 

Back to the beast mode

The Capitals were slated to face the Punjab Kings and the Mumbai Indians, who were their sole tormentor in the last edition and the men from Delhi had no option other than to lift their game.

At first, the Kings gave them the taste of their own medicines as their openers KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal came at them with all their might. The duo put on 122 runs for the first wicket and put the Capitals under a lot of pressure to keep the score down to an achievable level.

All went for plenty but the pair of Ravichandran Ashwin and Avesh Khan rescued the Capitals and checked the Kings from running away with the game.

Chasing a target of 196 runs, the Capitals too were not far behind the Kings and the opening pair of Shaw and Dhawan left their struggles against the Royals behind them and started from where they left against the Super Kings.

The duo put on 59 runs for the first wicket in mere 33 balls and reduced a big run chase to a middling one that was clinically completed by Pant and co. to give the Capitals their second win.

They were back on the track of winning but had a mountain to climb in the form of Mumbai Indians——their only nemesis in the last edition. They were up for the challenge though.

As the caravan moved to slower and spin-friendly pitches in Chennai for the second part of their campaign from a flat surface of Mumbai, they were quite good at adapting with bowlers who are good at varying their pace.

Marcus Stoinis got stuck into the Mumbai batting lineup and did not allow them to get going against the new ball, which was their strategy on those surfaces. Once a fluent Suryakumar Yadav perished at the hands of Avesh, the spin trio of Ashwin, Amit Mishra and Lalit Yadav asphyxiated the power-packed Mumbai batting and restricted them to a mere 137 runs.

The Capitals struggled with the bat as well but the for of Dhawan provided them with an anchor who kept them going with timely boundaries throughout the middle phase of the game. 

Close contests

With three wins in the first four games of the season including the one over the Mumbai Indians, the Capitals were up and running. However, two enthralling contests were awaiting them to test their nerves for the first time in the fresh season after failing on the same parameters last season.

The first of those encounters were against the Sunrisers where the duo of Kane Williamson and Jonny Bairstow threatened to chase down 160 before imploding against a disciplined and diverse bowling lineup.

The Capitals were blessed with another rollicking start by Shaw and Pant but lack of flourish from the middle and lower order could not help them go past 160 runs. 

The pitch was spinning and holding up too much and both Pant and Williamson decided to fight the battle of super over through spinners. Williams had a clear advantage as he had Rashid Khan at his disposal but Pant took the punt on Axar Patel who was getting his darts accurately in the wickets. 

In a 12 ball-long contest that was decided by the batting of Rishabh Pant against Rashid Khan and Williamson against Axar Patel, the Capitals emerged victories by barest of a bare margin by running a leg bye on the final ball.

In the next encounter against the Royal Challengers Bangalore, they turned out to be on the wrong side of AB de Villiers’ act of genius. He single-handedly impelled the men in red and gold to 171 runs on a slow pitch in Chennai and asked the Capitals to dig deeper.

Dhawan suffered a rare failure and none of Shaw, Steve Smith, and Marcus Stoinis could support the skipper Pant until Shimron Hetmyer woke up from the slumber just at the right time. Both put on an unbeatne partnership of 78 runs to leave the game perfectly poised with 14 required off the last over.

Albeit Pant was there on the crease for a long time, he was struggling to get the big shots going off his bat and the trend continued n the first three balls of the over even while Mohammed Siraj could not find yorkers. He could manage to hit the final two deliveries for fours but lost the game by another barest of the bare margin as Pant failed to hit a six on the last ball of the game.

Another Punjab mauling

The Capitals were the only side to play eight games in the first part of the tournament before Covid had enough of it and they mauled the Punjab Kings for one more time in the same season.

The Kings were without KL Rahul and the stand-in skipper Mayank Agarwal was in full flow with the bat with a 58-ball 99. However, his teammates could not give him ample support and the Capitals had to chase only 167 runs from 20 overs.

The red-hot opening pair of Dhawan and Shaw was at it again with a partnership of 63 runs while valuable contributions from others made sure the Capitals strolled in the park and went past the finish line to surge and strengthen their position on the top of the points table with six wins out of eight games.

Looking ahead to the UAE

The Capitals are all but set to advance to the next round of the tournament and it bears testament to their improvement over the last few seasons. They have been a force to reckon with in the recent seasons and the upcoming second part of IPL 2021 will be another shot at the elusive trophy that the franchise has been desperate to earn since the first edition.

They have retained Pant as captain albeit Shreyas Iyer has recovered from his injury and rejoined the squad in the UAE and it shows that the franchise is not willing to go back to the drawing board mid-season.

There will be no Chris Woakes in the second half but the return of Iyer would give them space to play both Rabada and Nortje in the conditions where they ruled the show in the last edition. 

Challenges

A majority of their batsmen will be rusty with little to no cricket in recent months. Iyer last played in March while Smith has not played any cricket since the IPL earlier this year.

Both Shaw and Dhawan were in good touch with the bat in Sri Lanka but it’s been a long tie since that tour and the Capitals will be wary of a rusty batting lineup going into the business end of the tournament.