Delhi’s unusual approach clicking

Predicting form of players and teams, trends of play and outcome of matches in T20 cricket can be fun, but fraught with the danger of finding foot in mouth.

Friday night for instance, I had a friendly wager that Mumbai Indians would roll over Kings Xl Punjab easily. There had been a marked difference in the form of the two teams. Even if Punjab had won their last match, they were languishing at the bottom of the table.

Mumbai looked far superior, particularly after Rohit Sharma won the toss and chose to bat first. While teams batting second had won the major share of matches this IPL, the pattern in Vishakapatnam had been the opposite.

Punjab captain Murali Vijay said he would have batted first too, and all the experts on television opined that chasing a target in the conditions that prevailed in this scenic Andhra city would find it very, very tough.

As it transpired, Mumbai’s batting flopped badly and Punjab were left to chase a paltry 125 to win. Would the conditions for batting have become worse, could defending champions Mumbai choke a side’s struggling batsmen

Apart from getting Hasham Amla, who poor chap, has looked like a fish out of water in the IPL despite an outstanding record in T20 cricket, Mumbai’s bowlers found no favour from the pitch or the Punjab batsmen. The required runs were knocked off for the loss of just three wickets — and with three overs to spare.

Talking of what works and doesn’t in the shortest format, there has been wide debate on whether stability and continuity of teams works better for a franchise or experimentation and a horses for courses approach, given that the league is played across the country on different grounds and conditions.

Again, those who argued in favour of either proposition would have been left red-faced with the kind of results that have been thrown up.

Mumbai, Gujarat Lions, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kolkata Knight Riders didn’t, at least in the initial stages, relying on their regular and established players to see them through with only minor tinkering. On the other hand, Delhi Dare-devils have chosen a dramatically different strategy and gone in for frequent changes.

Delhi’s tactics evoked debate essentially I think because the team mentor is Rahul Dravid whose batting career was defined by an orthodox, no frills approach. But such stereotyping was misplaced because he also understands the texture and tenor of T20 cricket better than most.

Criticism about Delhi’s approach got quickly muted as the team recovered from a horrid first match to start winning fairly regularly. “Why fix it if it ain’t broke ” is a truism that was shown to be untrue. As I write this piece, Delhi are third in the points table and poised to make the play-offs.

Talking of how teams are faring, the points table reflects how topsy-turvy this year’s competition has been. Before the season got underway, a majority of fans and experts would have vouched for Pune, Mumbai and Bangalore to be in the top 4 at this stage: instead, they are in the bottom four.

The presence of three of India’s biggest stars — M.S. Dhoni, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, and in leadership positions — hasn’t provided the boost expected to their team’s fortunes, though all of them have been in good form; Kohli spectacularly so.