Reluctance to dare with the ball costs Delhi

Twenty20 has introduced set plays to cricket. A lot of analysis and data goes into determining what choices you make for those set pieces, and not without merit. The best captains use that history but don't overlook what has been happening in the middle on the night.

Despite the starts thrown away, despite all the rested players, despite the catches, stumpings and run-outs missed, despite the wide balls, it was two decisions made in set plays that ended up costing Delhi Daredevils a win against one of the struggling sides in this IPL, Rising Pune Supergiants. Both of these moves seemed borne out of history as opposed to what happened on the night.

The first one came when Imran Tahir broke the 45-run partnership between Ajinkya Rahane and Saurabh Tiwary in the 14th over. Supergiants now needed 59 off 40 with eight wickets in hand, but with a shaky middle order to follow in a side that has a losing habit, now was the time to get that asking rate rise, not least because MS Dhoni is a notoriously slow starter nowadays. He premeditated a charge to the first ball he faced from Tahir, the first of two dots to start, and it looked like this asking rate could go further up from 9.5 at the end of the 14th.

Amit Mishra, who had bowled three overs for just 22 despite a no-ball mishap, had one over left. Now might have been the time to look to drive the screw in, but the thing with Dhoni is, he has a history of struggle against left-arm spin in limited-overs cricket. Sides world over go straight to left-arm spin if they can't muster a bowler who can bowl into his rib or hip at pace. JP Duminy, standing in for Zaheer Khan, took that conventional route, and bowled Pawan Negi at Dhoni.

Not that it was inexplicable, but there were two problems with this decision. The 15th over with the match in the balance was the first time Negi was going to bowl in this match. Also, Dhoni knows Negi's bowling inside out. Negi has spent a few seasons with Chennai Super Kings for a handful of matches, and has travelled with India to the Asia Cup and World T20 for just one game. For most of the time he has been bowling in the nets, and Dhoni quite fancied him. On the first ball from Negi, Dhoni smashed a huge six after stepping out. The early dot balls that you get from Dhoni were gone.

Through Tahir and Mishra in the next two overs, which went for just 10 runs, Daredevils were back again with the Supergiants needing 37 off 18. It was decision time again. Tahir had one over left. Obviously he was not going to bowl the 20th. And if he had to continue from the end he had bowled superbly from, he should have bowled the 18th.

For the two other overs, Daredevils stand-in captain Duminy had choices. Carlos Brathwaite and Mohammed Shami had two overs each. Brathwaite had gone for 17 in his two overs, and had bowled only cutters in his second over. Shami, on the other hand, was the only bowler who had provided pace on the ball. On a slow pitch it showed in his figures of 24 runs in two overs.

Duminy said at the post-match presentation that they had already spoken about Shami bowling two overs at the death. It wasn't without statistical backing either: Shami had bowled 24 balls at the death for just 33 runs and five wickets in the matches leading up to this. Once again Daredevils chose to go with their plan, and brought Shami on in the 18th over. Shami went for 20 in that over, and the game was over.

"Well we had three overs left at that stage and Imran only had one over left, so [that was] our best option at that point in time," Duminy said at the press conference. "Shami had two overs left so I couldn't bowl him from the other end because it wouldn't have matched up and we would have had to use somebody else. Mishra was done, so that was probably the best option to get Shami to bowl his four overs."

Brathwaite seemed completely forgotten.

They had the numbers and the analysis to make the decisions they did, but Daredevils will need to look back as much at these decisions as they will at their fielding. These lapses could end up costing them a place in the play-offs.