Rishabh Pant scored another half-century against Mumbai Indians. (Source: BCCI)
Lamichhane offers hope
Two out-of-the-world catches in the deep and six wickets taken by their two contrasting leg-spinners did not guarantee Delhi Daredevils an easy win even after 39 overs of the game. When Harshal Patel was smoked for a six by Ben Cutting off the first delivery of the final over, Mumbai Indians needed 12 runs for a win. Most would have placed their bets on Mumbai. But Patel kept his nerve to prise out the final two wickets to hand the Daredevils an 11-run win. By doing so, they finished their campaign on a high while defending champions Mumbai, by virtue of this loss, were eliminated from IPL 2018.
The tense win notwithstanding, it was a stellar defence by the Daredevils, and its chief architects were their two leg-spinners – Sandeep Lamichhane and Amit Mishra. The duo had fashioned a similar win against the Chennai Super Kings a couple of nights ago. On Sunday evening, they bowled 8 overs between them, conceded 55 runs and picked up six scalps. Lamichhane did get a bit of stick, but came back each time to get a wicket. The 17-year-old from Nepal may have featured in just three games, but has prised out five scalps, and his performances have been one of the major takeaways for the Daredevils this season.
The teen’s tryst with the IPL began ahead of the auction this year, when he was summoned for trials by Delhi Daredevils CEO Hemant Dua. The video of the trial was sent to coach Ricky Ponting, who was impressed. However, being sold at a base price of Rs 20 lakh at the auction did not guarantee a spot in the playing XI. The talent and spark notwithstanding, the team management was of the view that Lamichhane was still a work in progress. Midway through the tournament, the Daredevils were reeling after a string of losses triggered by their lacklustre and one-dimensional bowling attack. In such a scenario, many expected Lamichhane to be blooded in earlier. But Ponting puts things into perspective. “I think we got our team selections spot on. True, the Indians like Shreyas Iyer, Prithvi Shaw and Sandeep (Lamichhane) have been impressive. The reason someone like Sandeep wasn’t tried earlier in the tournament was because we had lost matches upfront and hence decided to field some of our more experienced players. This was the reason why he was benched,” Ponting explained. After sitting out 11 games, when the leg-spinner finally made his IPL debut, he made an instant impact. As Daredevils’ underwhelming campaign comes to an end, the rise of Lamichhane gives them hope for the future.
Delhi’s Mumbaikars flop
What was Prithvi Shaw thinking? In the searing Delhi heat, it looked like the young Mumbaikar had gone for a mindless stroll in the park. Glenn Maxwell, his opening partner, had just stroked a ball to Hardik Pandya at backward point, and almost immediately turned Shaw back. The teenager had nudged no more than a couple of yards from the crease, when a Pandya’s throw broke the stumps at the non-striker’s end with the batsman barely making any effort to regain his ground. All this happened in a split second, and Shaw must have been caught off guard. Run out after scoring a dozen runs, this could easily go down as one of the most bizarre dismissals this IPL. On an unforgiving Sunday afternoon at the Kotla, the Daredevils had pinned hopes on their young opener to give them a solid start. But Shaw had an off day.
For a better part in his team’s underwhelming season, Shaw had looked the part, showing off his wide repertoire of shots. After every loss, the scoreboard provided one reassurance, a breezy start at the top of the order from their young upstart. However, with time, his performances too began to taper off. In the last four games, Shaw scored just 40 runs.
Like Shaw, Shreyas Iyer, his Mumbai teammate and Delhi Daredevils captain, had a fairly prosperous start. Despite the string of losses, Iyer’s scores were a bright spot for the Daredevils. So much so, that they even decided to elevate him as captain after Gautam Gambhir stepped down after the six games. He scored four half centuries, with a top score of an unbeaten 93 against Kolkata Knight Riders. However, after the Daredevils were knocked out of playoffs’ contention, his performances, like Shaw, began to flounder. On Sunday, he had the opportunity to make amends and finish the campaign with a flourish. That did not happen, as he struggled with his timing and placement. His vigil came to an end when he pulled Mayank Markande’s googly down Krunal Pandya’s throat at deep mid-wicket. He accrued 60 runs from his final four games. That summed up his team’s travails.
Pant sizzles in Kotla heat
Despite their calamitous campaign, the Daredevils have maintained a run rate of close to 12 in the death overs. This is the best by any team in this competition so far. This stat may not come as a surprise to many – primarily because of the presence of the belligerent Rishabh Pant in their ranks. The 20-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman has been the pivot in the Daredevils line-up, and along with captain Iyer, has scored the bulk of the team’s runs. Pant has been irrepressible, scoring consistently irrespective of the opposition or the venue. With over 600 runs, he has easily been the best batsmen in this team of underachievers. Pant displayed many of those traits against Mumbai Indians as he muscled a 44-ball 64. Out of the four sixes, two smoked off Hardik Pandya stood out for the sheer brilliance. One was a reverse pull shot, and the other was a one-handed whack, reminiscent of one he had executed against Bhuvneshwar Kumar 10 nights ago. His exploits took the Daredevils to 174/4, which turned out to be a match-winning score.