After a strenuous training session at the scenic Moti Bagh ground in Vadodara, most of the Delhi players plodded towards the welcome shade of a huge tree, one of the many dotting the ground, to rest their tired limbs.
Rajat Bhatia, however, resisted the temptation and led a small
group, which gradually grew in size, for a few more rounds under the warm sun. Perhaps, he realised that it was time to push the limits.
That’s exactly what Delhi need to do this time to get over their rather disappointing showing in the last season in which they fell well short of making it to the last four stage.
A look at last season’s record shows them as not having pushed hard enough for victory, ending up drawing five matches of the seven they played, the most by any team in their group.
Vijay Dahiya, the Delhi coach, however, did not see much in the interpretation. “The end result may lead one to assume that we didn’t push hard for victory, but the reality is the opposite. We had played positive cricket right through, but ended up playing so many draws because of the opposition’s inclination to be content with the first innings lead against us,” Dahiya said.
“On three occasions, the opposition took slender first innings lead and then didn’t push for a result,” he added.
But more than that, what held Delhi back from pushing their case, as Dahiya pointed out, was the lack of runs from the batsmen. They had just three centuries to show for the entire tournament (Wasim Jaffer alone scored four for Mumbai), and that’s hardly the ammunition a team needs to go on the offensive.
“That’s something everyone in the team felt bad about. Our batsmen were disappointed, and are more than eager to set it right this time. We have one of the most experienced batting line-ups in Aakash Chopra, Shikhar Dhawan, Mithun Manhas and Rajat Bhatia. Moreover, Mayank Tehlan is coming along really well, which is a huge positive for us,” Dahiya said.
So how do they plan to turn around their fortunes this time? “We will play positive and aggressive cricket and hopefully we will have much better results,” he said.