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Prithvi Shaw, David Warner show lights up the Delhi Capitals IPL pathway
This season has seen the young Indian opener go all out while his seasoned Aussie opening partner has controlled his scoring tempo, an approach that can take the team a long way in the campaign
It is not often that the opposition is happier to have David Warner on strike than his batting partner. In each of his first two games for Delhi Capitals—he played for Delhi Daredevils from 2009 to 2013—the bowlers seemed to get a little more breathing space when up against the Australian. It’s no slight on Warner, but a glowing endorsement of fellow opener Prithvi Shaw’s capabilities. The diminutive batter from Mumbai has dominated opening stands of 67 and 93 in their two games together.
Such is Shaw’s boundary-hitting prowess that he invariably gets Delhi Capitals off to a rollicking start in the powerplay. Against Lucknow Super Giants on Thursday, Shaw hammered 61 (34 balls) of the 67 runs they raised in 7.3 overs. Shaw was the first to go while Warner stuttered to 4 off 12 balls before being dismissed in the ninth over. Once Shaw was gone, Delhi lost their way to be restricted to 149/3, losing by six wickets.
On Sunday, Shaw (51 off 29 balls) was at it again but so was Warner (61 off 45 balls) as a dazzling opening alliance of 93 in just 8.4 overs set the platform for Delhi to rack up a total of 215/5 in a 44-run victory over Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). It offered a glimpse into why they make a strong case to be considered the best opening pair in this Indian Premier League (IPL) season.
Other opening pairs—notably KL Rahul and Quinton de Kock for Lucknow and Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan for Mumbai Indians—would like to contest that of course, but they are yet to click together.
Shaw, 22, sent the first ball of the innings to the boundary on Sunday, capitalising on the width offered by Umesh Yadav to punch the ball off the back foot through mid-off. When Yadav overcompensated and bowled at Shaw’s pads, he glanced it to the right of fine-leg for another boundary. Shaw hits a boundary once in four balls on average in the powerplay and was keeping pace once again.
It left KKR skipper Shreyas Iyer—he played for DC till last season—in a daze, not knowing how to check the run flow. “I said we were clueless (at the post-match presentation) because they got such a good start in the first over itself. We didn’t anticipate that the surface will play so well. Prithvi Shaw is the kind of batter who can change the entire powerplay. I have played with him earlier. He plays shots off good balls also. As captain, you don’t know what fields to set to him,” Iyer told reporters after the defeat.
Warner, too, was in on the act quickly against KKR, bludgeoning Pat Cummins through the off-side for consecutive boundaries to get going before stamping his authority against spinners Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy. The Australian left-hander still played second fiddle to Shaw, but it wasn’t a clear case of dropping anchor. Barring the third over—where Warner faced just one ball—he hit a four or six in every over he faced in the powerplay.
“Shaw is great to watch. Being at the other end, it makes your job easy when someone does that. In this format, two opening batters never really go off at the same time. I’m happy to take the back seat. I am loving my time with Delhi Capitals,” Warner said at the presentation on Sunday.
If Warner feels rejuvenated at Delhi Capitals, it shouldn’t come as a surprise. His stint with Sunrisers Hyderabad ended on a bitter note—he was removed from captaincy midway through the 2021 season and played just a handful of matches in the UAE leg as his ball-striking ability eluded him. It prompted questions about the amount of cricket left in the 35-year-old, but the T20 World Cup that followed in the UAE helped banish those doubts. He finished the second-highest run-getter with 289 runs as Australia won their inaugural title in the format.
If Shaw and Warner continue in this fashion for the remainder of the tournament, Delhi should make a big push towards winning their inaugural IPL title.
