The DC Review

 The DC Review

It was a season where DC experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows in just 2 months. A season that gave the hope of ending an 18-year-old drought but did not fulfill it.

The Start of a Supposed Fairytale:

From Ashutosh's heroics to Starc's 5-fer, from Kuldeep's economical spells to KL's arrival, from Vipraj's all-round brilliance to Axar's leadership qualities.... the first 4 matches of DC had it all.

The Start of DC's Downfall:

The match against MI was a match where everything started going downhill for DC. They were in the front for 70% of the game but then a magical ball from Santner bowled the well-set Karun Nair on 89 and everything turned. That very moment turned MI's season for good but DC's season for the worst. This followed a massive collapse from 119-1 to 193 all out with an over to spare in a chase of 205. The collapse ended with a bizarre series of 3 run-outs back to back.
From this match onward DC just won 3 games out of their next 10 games.

The Curious Case of T.Natarajan:

A player bought for 10.75 Cr in the auction... who was SRH's highest wicket-taker in the 2024 season... one of the best death bowlers currently in India was benched by the DC management until their season's 12th match against GT where he bowled only 3 overs and gave 49 runs and was never given a chance again.
Mukesh Kumar who had bowled well in the powerplay and the middle phase of the matches had not delivered in the death with an economy of over 10 RPO in the death whole season.
Natarajan could've to some extent solved DC's death problem, especially after Starc's departure during the resumption but DC chose not to do so.

The Impact of Starc's Departure:

DC's 2nd highest wicket-taker after Kuldeep Yadav with 14 wickets in just 11 matches was Mitchell Starc. A man who single-handedly won matches for DC this season... whether it was the 5-fer against SRH or the Yorker masterclass against RR... STARC was a constant. After Kuldeep's dip in form during the 2nd half of the season, Starc was adhesive holding the DC bowling attack together till the resumption of IPL during which he opted out of the IPL and was replaced by the Bangladeshi pacer Mustafizur Rahman.
Starc's absence was clearly visible in the last 3 games where GT chased a total of 200 easily with 10 wickets hand....... the 13th match where MI scored 48 runs in the last 2 overs reaching 180 on a sticky turning track at the end proved to be the difference. The 14th match which ended in DC's side ...... there also the DC bowlers conceded 32 runs in the last 2 overs.

Inconsistency in Openers:

Whether it was the forced change in opening due to Faf's injury or due to lack of JFM's form... DC this season has tried out 6 opening pairs even giving Karun Nair a crack at the spot.... All of these pairs failed to capitalize.
It was only KL Rahul who gave his best performances whether it was at the opening spot with a century against GT or at No.3 and No.4 with invaluable contributions scoring 539 runs in 13 matches.

Conclusion:

All in all ... the inconsistent batting order, Natarajan, and Starc's absence, the luck in the washout game against SRH, Ashutosh and Vipraj's class and Kuldeep's massive form dip in the 2nd half with KL's class were the major headers of DC in IPL 2025.

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