DC ended their campaign on a high note with a high run-chase against PBKS. 207 runs was chased with 3 balls left but DC batters were quite in control of run chase. The race for the top 2 spots among the qualified teams has become tighter now. Sameer Rizvi displayed his capabilities and showed promise for the next season. Let’s look at the key areas which cost PBKS the match against DC.
Poor bowling strategies
PBKS is a batting powerhouse, and that is their strength. They have to look for strengthening their bowling unit too, if they want to win such a highly competitive tournament. There is a famous quote in cricket called “Batters win you matches, bowlers win you tournaments”.
They selected only two main fast bowlers in their XI, Arshdeep Singh and Marco Jansen. Azmatullah Omarzai played as their third seamer. That move backfired on them as Omarzai went for runs. They also missed their senior spinner Yuzvendra Chahal in this match.
They have bought Kyle Jamieson as the replacement for Lokie Ferguson. Jamieson can be handy with the bat too. He can produce that extra pace and bounce which Omarzai couldn’t replicate yesterday.
A team should have 5 full-time bowlers. 3 proper seamers and 2 spinners. PBKS played Azmatullah Omarzai at no.8 and Marco Jansen at no.9. Jansen is also a handy batter who could play some big shots in the death overs.
Their batting is already strong and power-packed with hitters like Prabhsimran Singh, Priyansh Arya, and Josh Inglis at the top and Shreyas Iyer, Nehal Wadhera, Marcus Stoinis, and Shashank Singh in the middle. Even Harpreet Brar can bat. He smashed a six in the last over against Mustafizur yesterday.
Azmatullah Omarzai also didn’t bowl to his strength. He went for the hard length and short balls and got smashed for boundaries. He was not effective at all and went for 46 runs in his 4 overs spell. Arshdeep Singh and Marco Jansen are the only two bowlers who could create pressure on the DC batters.
That’s why Sameer Rizvi and Karun Nair were able to score runs in the middle overs even after the fall of some quick wickets in the top order. Except for Arshdeep Singh, every other bowler went for more than 10 runs per over. PBKS bowlers were not able to put a shutdown to create pressure on the batters.
DC’s bowling tactics
On the other hand, DC had bowlers had the capability to take wickets and bowl shut down overs at required times. Mustafizur Rahman was the pick of the bowlers for his excellent spell of 4-33-3. Vipraj Nigam ( 4-38-2 ) and Kuldeep Yadav ( 4-39-2 ) bowled decently in this batting paradise with no turn for spinners.
Most importantly, they took a couple of wickets to put a break on the run rate. Mukesh Kumar gave away 25 runs in 17th over whereas Mhit Sharma conceded 22 runs in 19th over which changed the game drastically for DC. DC’s prime bowler Mustafizur, conceded just 14 runs in his 2 overs in the death and Kuldeep Yadav went for just 3 runs in his 18 overs.
They both conceded just 17 runs and took 4 wickets in their 3 overs ( 16th, 18th and 20th ) in the death overs. No one was able to do that for PBKS.
Also Read:Â PBKS vs DC: Chased With Grace, DC Signed Off With Style