IPL 2014: Delhi Daredevils don't seem to learn from their mistakes

DD’s current strategy reminds me of my own induction at Birlas some years back when one of the professors on campus put up a slide which read something like this: “Sir, what is the secret of your success?” a reporter asked a veteran banker. “Two words", said the veteran. “And, sir, what are they?” “Good Decisions”, replied the banker. “And how do you make good decisions?” asked the reporter prodding the banker further. “One word”, said the veteran expecting another supplementary. “And sir, what is that?” asked the reporter in a fragile tone. [caption id=“attachment_1523181” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] JP Duminy has often plowed a lone furrow for DD this season. BCCI[/caption] “Experience”, said the banker. “And how do you get Experience?” “Two words”, said the banker continuing in the monosyllabic manner. “And, sir, what are they?” “Bad decisions”, remarked the banker. But what do you do when you find yourself in DD’s shoes and instead of learning from bad decisions you go on repeating them? One way is to get treatment for the lateral frontal pole which is a Brussels sprouts sized area in the brain responsible for making bad decisions at the nearby AIIMS facility (a simple procedure costing Rs fifteen thousand). The other would be to promote JP Duminy up the order and simply let him play. A team over a period of time goes through the ecstatic high of an immaculate win as well as the heart-wrenched suffering of a narrow loss. However, since Delhi Daredevils appear totally unaware of the lessons from their bad decisions, the team has mostly experienced the latter. For a new troop like Delhi it is important to weather the bad trough as the Billy Beane story in Moneyball would suggest (where complete unfamiliarity and experience of handling criticism and mounting expectations destroyed an athlete’s career). Similarly, it is equally important that they must taste the sweeter part of playing in a professional league by winning games. A winning mindset is important because even an elephant gets conditioned to restrict his movements and not break free if chained from the feet at a young age. DD would need to forget the false boundaries and limitations produced in the past and learn on the job. Most of the teams have chosen to preserve their most explosive batsmen and let them loose at the later part of the innings. But Kings XI Punjab reversed this trend by sending in Maxwell and Miller upfront and this risky proposition has paid off reasonably well, albeit they still have George Bailey to play the finisher’s role. It’s hard to know how many matches Delhi might have lost by holding onto Duminy too long, but it is easy to comprehend that DD have been outwitted by the trendsetters in the game. Sports are more about a team performing collectively but in a season gone awry due lack of binding forces in a new squad and some sloppy decision making, acknowledging a player who puts up the figures despite limited number of chances should not be disregarded. And therefore, JP Duminy and Kedhar Jadhav deserve all the accolades for putting up good performances when the chips are down and the team lacks motivation.