Poor fielding against Kings XI Punjab causes Delhi Daredevils' ninth loss in the tournament
Poor fielding against Kingsu00a0XI Punjab causes Delhi Daredevils' ninth loss in the tournament
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For most Delhiites, the city of a Dharamsala ufffd a good 9-hour drive from the capital ufffd is a preferred holiday destination. And the way the Delhi Daredevils went about their IPL match against Kings XI Punjab at the picturesque HPCA Stadium here, it looked like most of them were on holiday. Consequently, Punjab won comprehensively by 29 runs.u00a0
u00a0Kings XI Punjab's intentions to qualify for the play offs saw openers Paul Valthaty and skipper Adam Gilchrist come out all guns blazing.
However, they could have been kept in check early on, and Delhi would not have been chasing a mammoth target of 171, had they not been dismal in the field.
Error
In the third over, Valthaty hit one to Yogesh Nagar at point and Gilchrist set off for a single which Valthaty didn't respond to. Nagar, instead of lobbing the ball back to bowler Irfan Pathan as the Australian gave up the chase, returned a quick sharp throw that breezed past Pathan and went for four overthrows. Gilchrist was on five then.u00a0
In the very next over Valthaty was dropped at first slip off pacer Morne Morkel. Venugopal Rao putting him down on 10. Then, in the eighth over, Valthaty pulled pacer Avishkar Salvi over fine leg but fielder Varun Aaron rushed in from the ropes, misjudged the ball and it embarrassingly sailed over him for six. Had he remained on the ropes, he would have caught Valthaty on 26. Valthaty went on to score 62 off just 50 balls with six fours and three sixes ably assisted by Shaun Marsh (46 off 28 balls) at the other end.
Folly
However, Delhi weren't done yet. Wicketkeeper Naman Ojha dropped Dinesh Karthik on two off speedster Aaron in the 16th over, giving away four runs in the process. Karthik added another 25 runs to his tally.
The frustration hit the roof for Delhi pacer Irfan Pathan when deep midwicket fielder Sridhar Sreeram misjudged a catch off Mandeep Singh at the fence giving away a boundary.
The very next ball Sreeram was slow to react again resulting in another four. Pathan immediately gestured to skipper James Hopes and got Sreeram replaced at mid-wicket.
Hopes was obviously disgruntled with the goings on. "It's all about getting the basics right and we just couldn't do that today," Hopes said at the post-match press conference. "The missed chances and misfields have summed up pretty much the entire season for us.
"At the start of our innings if we had held on to our catches, we could have had them at 2-10. From that scenario, it's a totally different ball game," said Hopes.u00a0u00a0
Punjab skipper Adam Gilchrist too admitted that discipline in the field is key. "The team that is disciplined creates and grabs the opportunities in the field and wins," he said.
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