It was a big blow for the Delhi Daredevils when their ace medium-pacer Zaheer Khan was declared unfit to play from the beginning of the IPL. He took time to achieve match-fitness and was ready to play just when his team had lost all the momentum.
By the time, he was able to deliver like a good old Zaheer Khan; the Daredevils were completely out of contention and were only playing for pride. Tuesday was one such occasion, where Delhi had to salvage some pride by coming up with a special show to upstage the table-toppers Chennai Super Kings at Raipur.
Fortunately, they could do all that because of old-hand Zaheer. The left-arm seamer produced a record breaking economical spell for the Daredevils that restricted and delayed CSK’s entry into the play-offs.
Probably for the first time in the history of IPL, Zaheer delivered the most memorable bowling spell that captured everyone’s imaginations. His spell was so effective that the best opening pair of the IPL from CSK – Dwayne Smith and Brendon McCullum – struggled to negotiate against nagging line and length bowling. There were instances when the ball came sharply into the right-handers and moved away from the bat. Practically, he offered no room to CSK batsmen.
Again, thanks to Zaheer’s spell, CSK made the lowest score in the mandatory power-play score this season and third lowest during the power-play in the history of IPL. He also took two big wickets of McCullum and CSK captain MS Dhoni to bag the man-of-the-match award for the first time in the IPL.
In reality, no one expected Delhi to perform like this. First the Delhi bowlers kept CSK under check by not allowing them to progress beyond 119 and, in reply, rounded up the match by six wickets with 20 balls to spare.
For a change, the Daredevils didn’t play like a low-ranked team right from the beginning. After Zaheer’s first spell, CSK lost the initial momentum. Fighting with a low score has been the biggest strength for Dhoni’s men over the years, but this time they couldn’t master that art.
Delhi’s opener Shreyas Iyer shared the highest partnership of the match with Yuvraj Singh for the third wicket, which eventually crushed CSK’s chance to make a comeback. Iyer did offer a chance in the ninth over, but the Mohit Sharma missed a diving catch, which could have been a game-changer.
