There was a strange gloom in the dressing room of the Delhi Daredevils. The support staff was sitting with their heads down after the Daredevils lost the match by 10 wickets against the Royals Challengers Bangalore in front of the home crowd at the Feroz Shah Kotla.
Most of the players were speechless. There were a few like the Angelo Mathews and captain JP Duminy who shook their heads in disbelief.
This was the same dressing room, which had a different mood on Thursday night after the Daredevils had beaten the Mumbai Indians without much of a struggle. But against the RCB, it was more of an embarrassment than anything else.
Send to bat first, the Daredevils first messed it up by losing a couple of early wickets. Thanks to some disciplined bowling by Australian pace spearhead Mitchell Starc. Then, Varun Aaron rubbed it in by taking two quick wickets of Yuvraj Singh and Angelo Mathews.
At this stage, the hosts were reduced to 39 for four in the seventh overs. The battle was over there and then. The mood of the team was distinctively pessimistic. When Yuvraj got out to the wicketkeeper, he went straight into the dressing room instead of going back to the dug-out, where his teammates were sitting. There was nothing positive about the Daredevils.
From this defeat at the hands of the RCB, it’s more or less clear that the Daredevils will have to play out of their skin to be in the IPL play-offs. This was the match, where a win could have given the indications whether or not they are a contender for the knock-out stages.
Unfortunately, the Delhi team lost that opportunity. The Daredevils have their back against the wall and will be waiting for a miracle of sorts to change their fortunate.
It’s true that last match hero Shreyas Iyer was given out LBW when the ball was clearing missing the leg-stump. It’s true that Delhi needed Duminy to stay at the crease for a long time, but you can’t single out these batsmen just because they are the ones doing the bulk of scoring for their team.
Unlike last two years, the Daredevils had showman flashes of brilliance against a few teams this season. But that wasn’t enough. The team will really lose it big time if they don’t make necessary changes to their playing XI in the upcoming matches.
