Delhi Daredevils were struck by Murphy's law against Royal Challengers

In accordance with Murphy’s Law, which states that everything that can go wrong, will go wrong, Delhi Daredevils made a horrible start to their IPL campaign. DD’s biggest trump card Kevin Pietersen ws sidelined because of a finger injury The onus of captaining the side fell on the expensive, fidgety Dinesh Karthik who as fate would have it, led a team in which Murli Vijay opened the batting (for those of you who don’t know what’s odd about that, a simple google search on those two names would suffice). Then DD lost the toss and were put in to bat by the team with only the best chasers in the game: Virat Kohli and AB De Villiers. [caption id=“attachment_1486811” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Mohammad Shami. BCCI[/caption] As if all of this wasn’t enough, RCB’s bowling unit put up an inspired show led by Varun Aaron, who by historical data sprays his opening spell all over the pitch, but here bowled a splendid spell (starting with a wicket-maiden). There was so much gloom at one point of time that it seemed the universe was against DD. For a Delhi Daredevils fan, it was a replay of the team’s nightmare start to the season last summer with same set of morphed players packaged differently. Anybody who saw DD’s batting in the first six-seven overs would agree that a teenager on steroids would have done a better job than what DD managed. It was no better in the field, as Karthik showed poor instincts by not letting Mohammad Shami bowl one last over and make Yuvraj dance to the tunes of Jumping Japack. Memories of the previous season flooded the prefrontal cortex. The mockery on social media, those long monotonous mornings in the office when nothing in life seems fair, the punchlines from friends who long ago switched allegiance to a Dhoni or a Kohli. The hope to start the season with a bang, over. The excitements of a new look squad, diminished. The chance of one-upmanship among rival fraction supporters, squandered. ‘Delhi abhi door hai’ (the target is still far-away). But in a parallel universe this could still have worked out. What if DD had won the toss and bowled first? What if KP had played and Quinton de Kock was given an opportunity? What if those catches had been held on to? What if Shami had delivered that knockout punch to Yuvraj Singh? Yes, in an alternate universe things might have worked out differently in favor of DD, but this is a new team and should be given time to gel. This is a bunch of players led by individuals who have shown a lot of gumption in the past and have a history of making strong comebacks. But if there ever was a time when DD needed inspiration, this is it. A DD fan, parched for a win this long would love to watch KP play, even if in pain. This slow start gives DD an opportunity to reflect quickly on what went wrong and nurture a team which plays hard and does not wither in the face of adversity. No matter how DD played last night, the ‘dilli wala dil’ is not ready to give in yet because for every Murphy law in the universe there stands a law of averages and it’s time to restore the equilibrium.