Here is a peculiar factoid to start with. After almost a fortnight in the competition, Delhi Capitals, Mumbai Indians, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Chennai Super Kings have together garnered only two points across 10 matches. What’s even more peculiar is those two points have come from a match-up of two teams within this pack of four – Delhi beat Mumbai in their season-opener and got those points.
It is staggering whichever way you look at it. Hyderabad is beset with troubles lingering from last season. Chennai got their auction strategy wrong, and Mumbai got the costly end of a few paddles in the same auction. Delhi Capitals, by that standard, had a fairly successful and satisfying auction. On paper, they looked particularly strong, having rounded up a balanced squad with both bat and ball.
The first two games revealed an anomaly in Delhi’s plans. With David Warner and Mitchell Marsh not available, their top-order has looked shaky. Most of the scoring responsibility has fallen on Rishabh Pant, who has scores of 1, 43 and 39* in three games. While Warner was away, Tim Seifert scored 21 and 3. Prithvi Shaw took three matches to find form, and his half-century against Lucknow Super Giants was timely but not enough just yet.
Lucknow Super Giants have built a strong middle order to avoid over-dependence on top order. Image: Sportzpics for IPL
There is an overall struggle for runs. In its last two games, Delhi have struggled to cross 160 and 150, a downward trend when you consider it chased down 177 in the season opener. Against Mumbai in their opening game, Delhi were buoyed by a late charge from Axar Patel and Shardul Thakur. How many times are they going to do it? Not many, over the course of a 14-game season, and a lack of runs from Delhi’s top batters are starting to get noticed.
This is the point where questions arise. Not retaining Shikhar Dhawan or Ajinkya Rahane on account of age was okay, but is there too much reliance on Shaw, whose form is patchy at best? The young opener has a lot to prove and generally does well when he has an in-form partner. Warner’s coming should invigorate him, albeit the Australian’s own form is a cause for concern.
You also want to ask if Pant should be batting at number three to be able to make more of an impact? As captain, he should assert this on coach Ricky Ponting for a lightweight Delhi top-order means Pant can do more damage at that position. Can Lalit Yadav or Sarfaraz Khan win the title for Delhi? The answer is no, but Pant can.
An unsorted batting line-up is the root cause of Delhi’s travails at the moment. You only have to look at the opposing camp and see how Lucknow Super Giants have quickly sorted this facet of their strategy. At first look after the auctions, their squad looked thin. But on deeper inspection after four matches, it seems they had concentrated on getting right the key positions in the first-choice playing eleven. This gamble seems to be paying off early dividends.
After 13 days of action, Quinton de Kock (149 runs), KL Rahul (132 runs) and Deepak Hooda (130 runs) are sitting pretty in the top-five run-scorers.
How has this come about? Despite defeat in the first game against Gujarat Titans, Rahul said their middle order was the biggest positive. And it has rung true, for the likes of Hooda and Ayush Badoni got a taste of life in the middle. Usually, in T20 cricket, it is the other way round – the top-order bats and bats, consumes most overs, and the middle-order batters are starved of opportunities, thus failing at crunch moments.
Rahul has witnessed this phenomenon both as a player for Team India and then as captain with Punjab Kings. The latter instance is where he has gained all wisdom, and is now assimilating it with the likes of Gautam Gambhir and Andy Flower to put those lessons to good use. Gone is the over-dependence on the top-order as Lucknow Super Giants have put together a batting line-up capable of performing at different times and in different situations.
It is almost like a jigsaw puzzle that has been put together, and almost appears complete. With Hooda and Badoni firing early, all their pieces were set. Rahul and de Kock are arguably the best opening combination in the competition. So far, their opening contributions stand at 0, 99, 8 and 73. One of the two batters is firing at every alternate innings, thus helping set up the platform for the middle overs.
Manish Pandey’s poor form was a concern here. In the first three games, he scored 6, 5 and 11, thus putting himself in a quagmire. A new franchise, a new team and staff set-up, an advanced batting role that he likes, this was a golden opportunity wasted for Pandey like many others in the past. There could be no way back for him from here onwards, but then again, cricket and IPL are strange beasts.
Evin Lewis has provided a ready-made solution for Pandey’s problems. That 23-ball burst against Chennai Super Kings assured the team management of his ability to play spin in the middle overs. Perhaps dewy conditions at three of the four venues have aided him and Lucknow in this endeavour. Combined with the availability of Jason Holder, they now boast of a lengthened batting line-up with Krunal Pandya manning the lower order.
Overall, it is a calculative batting approach from Lucknow that is starting to bear fruits at the very start of the season. It is dissimilar from the likes of Kolkata Knight Riders and Punjab Kings, in that they don’t really go slam-bang from ball one. Those two teams have lost out on different occasions because their batting line-up tries to play out in one gear. Lucknow, much like Rajasthan Royals, have mixed accumulators with blasters, to counter different situations and rebuild if the need arises at any point.
It explains how different batters have stepped up and saved the day for Lucknow – Hooda and Badoni almost saved the day in the first game. Lewis against CSK, then Rahul-Hooda despite a collapse against Hyderabad, and on Thursday night, it was de Kock setting the tempo despite early wickets again. At one stage, it appeared that Delhi might be able to apply the chokehold and squeeze out a victory. Promoting Pandya and holding back Badoni to finish things off worked like a charm.
In that, Lucknow’s batting adventures are mirrored in Badoni’s rise. It is an experiment that has gone well, and it is his chutzpah firing up this young franchise in an unprecedented manner.
Click here for full IPL 2022 coverage
Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, IPL Live Score, IPL 2022 schedule, IPL 2022 Points table and Entertainment News. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.