The best team in the league stage has been knocked out of the Indian Premier League. Delhi topped the table and looked very threatening going into the tournament, but some crucial lapses and some bad decision making cost Delhi their first IPL final.

Delhi was on the top of the list hence they had two shots for the finals and things looked good for them. But in both the matches they were outplayed by their opposition, thanks to some sloppy cricket and decisions which did not make any sense.

Let’s have a look at some of the decisions that proved fatal for Delhi against Kolkata Knight Riders in qualifier one:

Playing four fast bowlers: The first qualifier was played in Pune on a pitch which has always been conducive for spin bowlers. Delhi on that pitch fielded four fast bowlers suffered a lot. The only two bowlers who were successful were Irfan Pathan and Pawan Negi. Pathan bowls a lot of cutters and was effective on the slow pitch. Three quick bowlers, Morkel, Yadav and Aaron gave away 122 runs between them in 12 overs.

Sending Ross Taylor at number seven: The Kiwi captain is in the Delhi Daredevil’s team for his explosive batting, but Delhi completely wasted him as they sent him to bat at number seven when the required run-rate was close to 20. They sent Negi ahead of both Taylor and Pathan and that confused everyone.

Now let’s discuss some of the mistakes that the Delhi team management committed in their do-or-die match against Chennai Super Kings:

Dropping Morne Morkel: The tall South African has been the most successful bowler in IPL-5 and it was a shock not to see him in the playing eleven. Morkel bowls at an awkward length and is very hard to get away, he has won Delhi quite a few matches in this season and Chennai batsmen would have been delighted by the news that they will not have to face him.

Decision of bowling first: Delhi dropped Morkel because they wanted to strengthen their batting by the inclusion of Andre Rusell. All their four international players were batsmen and it was surprising to see them winning the toss and electing to field first. Going by the players they had, Delhi would have been quite a threat if they would have batted first. Chasing the target with the required rate of 11 from the beginning is not easy and that’s exactly what Delhi found out.

Sehwag dropping to number three: Virender Sehwag is one of the most successful opening batsmen be it any format. Sehwag is dangerous at the top order and can set the right tone for the rest of the batting order. He however, decided to drop himself to number three and that looked as a negative decision. In big matches big players have to step up and dropping them self sends a wrong signal.