Before the match started, I was very curious to know what each team would do if they won the boss. Delhi has a great batting lineup and they have been very comfortable in chasing down scores. They were also able to put the screws on teams batting first, especially with Vettori coming on after the “tactical” timeout. Rajasthan, on the contrary, failed miserably twice when batting second. Their bowling has been good enough to restrict opposing teams, but their batting let them down.
It would have been an interesting match if Delhi had decided to chase. But Delhi Daredevils seemed to look at Rajasthan’s weakness and decided, “Let’s play against their Achilles’ Heel instead of playing to our strength.” Unfortunately, even though the Rajasthan Royals had a typical batting wobble, this time, they were able to overcome it and reverse a troubling trend. Like their previous victory against Kolkata Knight Riders, they cannot avoid bringing some drama to their matches.
Earlier in the day, Delhi had lost too many wickets at the beginning of the innings, but once again Rajasthan didn’t keep the pressure on the 5th wicket pair who added 56 runs off 8 overs. de Villiers continued his good form in the tournament with a fifty and Delhi, aided by contributions from Vettori and Manhas, reached 143, which is not a huge total, but a plausible winning total against the fickle Rajasthan Royals batting order.
143 definitely seemed an extravagant target after Rajasthan stumbled to 64/5 after the 11th over. However, a struggling Graeme Smith was determined to see the match through and a spectacular 30-ball 62 by Yusuf Pathan blew away the Delhi Daredevils. Daniel Vettori was totally ineffective this time around and Rajasthan won with 9 balls to spare, such was the ferocity of the assault.
The result of this match has been against the flow of events in the tournament. Delhi had momentum with 3 consecutive victories. And Rajasthan’s sole victory was courtesy the Super Over. Now, this throws open new possibilities for every team to reach the semi-finals. Let us have a look at the Points table again.
Team Matches Points Points/Match Net Run Rate Deccan Chargers 4 8 2.00 +1.33 Delhi Daredevils 4 6 1.50 +0.21 Mumbai Indians 4 5 1.25 +1.65 Kings XI Punjab 4 4 1.00 +0.27 Rajasthan Royals 5 5 1.00 -1.11 Chennai Super Kings 5 3 0.60 +0.70 Kolkata Knight Riders 5 3 0.60 -2.01 Bangalore Royal Challengers 5 2 0.40 -0.60
The 1.00 score for the Points/Match is the safety line. The lower you go below it, the greater effort you have to put to keep yourself in the running for the semi-finals. A washed-out match could be disastrous for you because it prevents you from closing the gap with the others. Right now, Chennai, Kolkata and Bangalore are seriously in trouble. And conversely, Deccan is in a very comfortable position.
Rajasthan is not quite out of the woods yet because another defeat could pull them back. They still do not have their batting problems sorted out and they have a huge deficit in the NRR (the second worst in the league). They have played one more match than the Top Four, though that problem will be solved when Mumbai and Punjab meet tomorrow. Rajasthan would probably want Punjab to beat Mumbai because Mumbai has an easy match against Bangalore in its first round of matches, while Punjab has to face Chennai and Deccan next.
What that means in simple terms is that the bottom-placed teams need the top teams to lose a few among themselves, because if any team starts winning against everyone else, there is one fewer semi-final spot. At this moment, Deccan has almost eliminated one spot and Delhi seemed to be on the same path, but for their setback today. Rajasthan wouldn’t mind Deccan defeating everyone else if they could somehow snap Deccan’s streak thus gaining two points that no one gets.