CSK vs DD: Good intentions, bad luck and the art of fielding

The art of fielding requires a certain amount of focus and sharp reflexes because a good fielder is like a master archer who has to gauge the wind when settling under the ball, pace himself up for that one last step, brace himself for any mischief under the floodlights, and finally make that last lunge in case his calculations go awry. Seldom do we see fielding make an impact so large on a game where one team has already check-marked most of the items on the win-and-thrash-rivals checklist. CSK amassed a mountain of runs, punched above its weight in the bowling department (presumably their only weak link), and came out all pumped up about not giving an inch to DD. No cheeky singles; no easy twos; no return gifts for dropped catches and wobbles on the field. [caption id=“attachment_1490955” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Delhi are missing Kevin Pietersen. BCCI[/caption] Such was the intensity from CSK that they almost looked like acrobats disguised as cricketers. CSK has not one but two versions of its indigenous Brahmastra in Faf Du Plessis and Suresh Raina. They were airborne every second ball and looked to play cricket in a different dimension from the others. DD had no way but to look for corners on the ground which were inaccessible for teleportation - how else to explain Du Plessis magically covering so much ground that it seemed Manoj Tiwary was just a means to explore various degrees of the impossible. Such sharpness in the field not only induces doubts in a batsman’s mind but also produces an aura of invincibility around the team. DD’s performance was below par to say the least. DD lost Nathan Coulter-Nile very early in the match and had to resort to trial-and-error method to fill in his quota of four overs. In hindsight DD could still have paced their innings a lot better and we have seen them do that a lot of times prior to this mess of a chase. Delhi Daredevils display all the ingredients of a well balanced team but still carry that stiffness of a new squad, which looks like a made to order item from the outset, but then fades under the weight of its own expectations like a half-baked chicken tikka which is gorgeous from outside but is more than what one can chew inside. The team looks good on the field but will need to bind its middle order together to anchor their campaign and earn a chance to fight it out in the last four. Kevin Pietersen filling in the slot occupied by Jimmy Neesham would make the team look more stable. The four-day break for DD before the next match is Godsend considering the injuries plaguing the squad. DD will have to forget the match against CSK as just one of those bad days at the office. Also, it did not help to have one of the performing players in the squad sit on the bench for the better part of the contest. The game last night rounds up DD’s string of bad luck in the first quarter of its campaign, and a DD fan would just hope that Delhi turn a corner and spice up things in the next phase of this edition of IPL with some good news and the flavor of its class.