Legends say that Delhi are still picking their best XI

The issue with peaking too early in the competition is that, once you fail, you don’t have much time to react and that is precisely the phase that Delhi Capitals have found themselves in. After winning seven games and getting a foot inside the play-offs alongside Mumbai Indians, Delhi have somehow found multiple ways of choking from varying situations, be it the run-chase or batting first, which has now put their entire season on the line. Against Mumbai, once again, they had three changes - Shaw, Harshal Patel and Pravin Dubey in - which didn’t help them, now putting their entire season on the line against RCB, in a do-or-die encounter. How did they even find themselves in such a situation?

Rohit Sharma is their skipper, opener, their man to lead the team under the extreme of pressure situations but without him, Mumbai Indians have rather looked far more complete as a group. Ishan Kishan-Quinton de Kock at the top have looked more solid and attacking while the middle-order has equally contributed in his absence, with Hardik Pandya taking the responsibility. In terms of leadership, they have an able leader in the form of Kieron Pollard, who has won two games out of three in Rohit’s absence, which meant that things aren’t that bad as the fans initially expected it to be. 

In all seriousness, Navdeep Saini with the white-ball is a bad idea

Multiple problems, one multiple for multiple solutions - Jason Holder for Sunrisers Hyderabad. In the first half of the season, they were hell-bent on opening with Jonny Bairstow and David Warner to do them the job but it quickly reversed and started hurting them by the game. It was not until the encounter against Kings XI Punjab that Sunrisers realised that they need an all-rounder, who can score a few quick runs and in equal measures, and pick up wickets when it really matters. Enter Jason Holder, exit Chris Morris and Isuru Udana, while only conceding 27 runs. In the second innings, when they were 87/4, he walked in and walked out unbeaten with a 10-ball 26, solving Sunrisers’ dear problems. 

Last year, when SRH needed him the most to finish off games, the right-handed Hooda only scored 64 runs off 63 deliveries, at an average of 10.7 and a strike-rate of 101.76, which only showed he wasn’t quite up to the task. In between the two seasons, after being bought by Kings XI Punjab, has worked immensely on his shots in the off-side, after being dominantly a leg-sided player. This season, he hasn’t got the opportunity thus far to finish off the games, with a plethora of superstars ahead of him in the Punjab batting order, but against CSK, all of them faltered. Once they faltered, it fell on Hooda, who scored a scintillating 30-ball 62 to take KXIP to a respectable score in a must-win encounter. 

Kolkata Knight Riders vs Rajasthan Royals

Ahead of this game, one thing was clear as daylight, the two Kings - KXIP and CSK  - were out of the tournament, thanks to CSK’s win earlier in the day. So when these two sides took on each other in the field, it was a weird day of cricketing action. When Kolkata were batting first, it really looked like Rajasthan had no other bowler apart from Jofra Archer who could pick up the wickets early on. When KKR were indeed thunderstruck with Andre Russell’s dismissal, there was Eoin Morgan who came up with the clutch. But in all, the quality of cricket on play seemingly was deceiving, only hyped by the mathematics part of it. In the second innings, Rajasthan never arrived, barring of-course Ben Stokes. As a fan, what exactly am I cheering them for, when they put on never-seen-before show one day and succumb like a young kid looking at chocolate, the very next day?