IPL 2018: Delhi Daredevils a pro at losing, trying hard to hit the bottom

There's something about a tournament like Indian Premier League (IPL): All competing teams fight their hearts out to stay on the top. And then there are some like Delhi Daredevils that do the exact opposite. They appear to be striving hard to remain at the bottom.

At Kolkata’s Eden Gandens on Monday, it was a homecoming match for DD captain Gautam Gambhir, who used to lead Kolkata Knight Riders until last year. Ideally, the Delhi team and Gambhir should have done everything to win this game, but all they won was the toss. After they invited KKR to bat first, things briefly did seem to be going in their favour as Trent Boult bowled a maiden first over of the match and Sunil Narine was dismissed cheaply. But that was not enough good news.

No DD bowler was able to contain the run flow as Robin Uthappa had his way with the bat in a quickfire innings of 35. DD’s bowling has seen a lot of stress since the beginning of the tournament. Chris Morris, Shahbaz Nadeem, and Mohd Shami have all leaked runs. Shami, known to bowl good yorkers, has not been seen doing that in IPL 2018 so far. He has missed his line and length; on Monday he completely failed to use the experience of having played so much on the same ground – Kolkata being his home town.

They made sure that every KKR batsman got a decent figure against his name on the scorecard. Any KKR batsman who must have been feeling a little out of form would have become more confident.

Worse for DD, their fielding was also nothing to write home about. Andre Russell’s dropped catch was like inviting pains for oneself. Bowlers changed but the run rate remained steady. Gambhir's captaincy and team selection was horrible. Why is an experienced bowler like Amit Mishra sitting on the bench? He has to his name the only hat-trick by a DD bowler. Spinners were not used as effectively as they should have been. Maxwell, who is very effective and can get essential breakthroughs, should have been used. In fact, it was spinners’ show that had pulled the previous game in DD's favour against Mumbai Indians.