From Zero To Hero: Viru

Tuesday, 16 March 2010 17:12 Suraj Kori

iSporter Suraj Kori summarizes the turn of events of the Daredevils vs Royals match. Read his post-match analysis here.

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Delhi Daredevils registered their second straight win of the tournament against Rajasthan Royals on Monday. It was quite a comfortable win for the Daredevils with Rajasthan putting up just 141 on the board. Getting this score was never a tough task for DD! Gambhir, Man Of the Match of the last match failed to deliver the same kind of an innings. Nevertheless, Delhi still had Virender Sehwag…

This match was supposed to be a high scoring match with Viru and Yusuf Pathan playing against each other. The spectators were hoping to take a few catches themselves as both these players like to hit the ball into the crowd! Running the ones and twos seems of no use to these two men. And why not! Especially when you can hit the fours and sixes with such ease. They simply stand on their crease and hit the ball out of the ground! Charging down the ground seems unnecessary for them.

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Yusuf played a blistering knock of 100 of 37 balls against Mumbai which is the fastest century of IPL! And the same was expected from him against Delhi. But he got out without even scoring a run. A lot was expected from him by Captain Shane Warne. Had had Yusuf stayed on the ground for a few overs it would have definitely made a difference of at least 30-40 runs. And Rajasthan would have got to a respectable score that they could defend.

Where as Viru on the other hand who got out on 8 in the last match played a match winning innings of 75! Viru was expected to play big shots knowing that he cannot be kept quite for a long period. Well, there is nothing you can do when Viru gets going. He was hitting the ball all around the ground. And all these were clean hits. There was just no stopping him! Once he did miss-time one of his shot but he was lucky enough to get away with it. Shaun Tait dropped his catch and there was a hit on the motivated Royals fans…

This shows what pressure can do to a player. When Viru stepped down as captain of DD he gave the reason that he was not able to concentrate on his batting because of the pressure of captaincy. Viru is a player of great concentration and his few knocks of 300+ in Tests proves that! Well, if you can play such an innings without being the captain then your team would be satisfied with your contribution as a player. Viru is expected to continue this form in the coming matches too…

Turning Point Of The Match:

The turning point for me was the dropped catch of Viru. When Tait dropped Viru, he was standing at a score of 41. And things would have turned around had the Royals got the much awaited break through. Delhi Daredevils are on top of the table with 2 wins in 2 matches with KKR being the only other team to manage 2wins. But the net run rate of Delhi keeps them ahead of KKR.

Delhi Daredevils would be playing the next match against Mumbai Indians on Wed, 17th March. This would be a Home match for Delhi. Lets see what the Daredevils have in store for us now!