2012 Delhi Daredevils season

Background

The Delhi Daredevils is a franchise cricket team based in Delhi, India which plays in the IPL. It is owned by the GMR Group, which bought it for million. It had a "shocking performance" in the 2011 season, finishing at the last position. In the 2012 IPL auction, the team purchased Mahela Jayawardene for $1.4 million, It got Kevin Pietersen and Ross Taylor from the Deccan Chargers and the Rajasthan Royals respectively in a transfer window, and it gave Andrew McDonald to the Royal Challengers Bangalore. It also released Ashok Dinda and James Hopes to the Pune Warriors India. It signed Pawan Negi, Manpreet Juneja and Kuldeep Raval, dropping out Robert Frylinck, Sridharan Sriram, Vivek Yadav, Rajesh Pawar and Matthew Wade. Glenn Maxwell and Gulam Bodi were signed as the replacements for withdrawn players Travis Birt and Colin Ingram.

Before the season, Daredevils' head coach Greg Shipperd was replaced by Eric Simons, who was the previous assistant coach of the team and the then bowling coach of the India. T. A. Sekhar became the team mentor for the second time, after working with the Mumbai Indians in the previous two seasons.

In her preview of the Daredevils for ESPNcricinfo, Sharda Ugra termed the buying of Pietersen and Jayawardene as the "repair work for the new season." She termed the team's middle order as a "perfect mixture: batsmen of calibre combining with the game's leading entertainers," and identified Virender Sehwag and Jayawardene as the key players.

Squad

The following players made at least one appearance for the Daredevils in 2012. The age given is at the start of the team's first match of the year (5 April 2012).

Indian Premier League

The Daredevils finished in third place in the 2012 IPL, which was "another season of dominance at the league stage ended without a win in the playoffs." After a disappointing season in 2011, the 2012 IPL saw a return of the Daredevils to being one of the more consistent IPL teams.

The Daredevils topped the points table in the league stage, in which they won 11 out of 16 matches. They played its first match against the Kolkata Knight Riders, and won by eight wickets. This was followed by a 20-run loss against the Royal Challengers Bangalore. It won its next match against the Chennai Super Kings by eight wickets, and then in the "battle of the heavyweights", aggressive bowling by the Daredevils earned it a win against the Mumbai Indians. In the match against the Deccan Chargers, it got a five-wickets victory, and Pietersen played a 103-run innings. This was followed by two matches against the Pune Warriors India; it lost the first by 20 runs, and won the second by eight wickets. Then in the match against the Rajasthan Royals, Morkel's "sensational penultimate over" gave the Daredevils a one-run victory, and also saw Sehwag becoming the only player to make four consecutive half-centuries in the IPL. The team's next fixture was also against the Royals, which was a six-wicket win. extending his record to five consecutive fifties. In the "clash between the two most impressive teams in the tournament," the Knight Riders beat the Daredevils by six wickets. This caused the Daredevils to lose the top spot in the points table, a position it had held "virtually from the start of the tournament". Then "came a cropper on a lively pitch", as the Daredevils lost to the Super Kings by nine wickets. It became the first team to get into the playoffs when it registered a five wickets win against the Kings XI Punjab. Against the Royal Challengers Bangalore, it faced a 204-runs partnership between Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli, the second best in Twenty20, and lost the match by 21 runs. It finished its league stage campaign with a six wickets win over the Kings XI.

The Daredevils played the first qualifier against the Knight Riders. The winner of this match qualified for the final, whereas the loser got another chance to get to it. Irfan Pathan, Yadav and Negi each got one wicket, whereas Varun Aaron conceded 48 runs in four overs. Chasing the total, the Daredevils lost its openers Warner and Sehwag at seven and ten runs respectively. "Virtually unknown offspinner" Sunny Gupta made his IPL debut in the match, and this was "one of the biggest tactical goof-ups in IPL history." Gupta conceded 47 runs in his three overs; Aaron gave 63 in his four overs: the least economical bowling figure in IPL. After the match, coach Simons clarified that Morkel was dropped to an allrounder in the form of Russell. Morkel was later awarded the Purple cap for claiming the most number of wickets in the tournament., for claiming the most wickets in the tournament: 25.

Season standings

Match logs and statistics

Champions League Twenty20

By finishing third in the IPL, the Daredevils qualified for the 2012 CLT20. Before the tournament, Morkel decided to play for the Daredevils and not for his home team the Titans. The franchise changed the team captain to Jayawardene as per the suggestion of Sehwag, who wanted to be "relieved of the responsibility" in order to "bat freely". Aavishkar Salvi came in as a replacement for Aaron, who was going to go through tonsillectomy. Sehwag strained a ligament during the 2012 ICC World Twenty20, due to which he was initially doubtful for the CLT20; however he recovered from the injury and played in the tournament. In his preview for ESPNcricinfo, Sidharth Monga said that the team had "some of the best names Twenty20 cricket can throw up." He termed Morkel as the key player and Unmukt Chand as the "surprise package".

Directly qualifying to the group stage, two of the four group matches of the Daredevils were abandoned due to rain. It played its first match with the Knight Riders, and won it by 52 runs. The Daredevils' innings ended at 160 runs for eight wickets, and Chand emerged as the top-scorer with 40 runs. In response, the Knight Riders got all out for 108 runs; Yadav, Ajit Agarkar and Morkel took two wickets each. Morkel took three wickets for 19 runs, and the team's "four-pronged pace attack was at its best." However Agarkar's 11 runs from seven balls helped the team eventually win the match. It again rested Jayawardene to make space for Warner. Batting second, the Daredevils lost its openers early, and no other specialist batsman, except Pietersen, was able to reach a double figure. Pietersen scored a half-century, while Morkel remained not out at 18 runs.

Season standings

Key: Pld = Played, W = Wins, L = Losses, NR = No result, Pts = Points, NRR = Net run rate.

Notes:

Teams marked progressed to the next stage of the competition.

Teams marked were eliminated from the competition.

Match logs and statistics

Reaction

Daredevils released fourteen of its players for 2013 IPL. This release included Robin Bist, Bodi, Bracewell, Aaron Finch, Sunny Gupta, Maxwell, Salvi and Rao. It signed Kedar Jadhav for . Later in the year, the franchise also started Fastrax Daredevils School Cup, an Inter-School Twenty20 tournament. The franchise, under its "Dare to Care" campaign, launched the website . The campaign, supported by UNICEF India, is meant to protect the right of adolescent girls facing "various forms of discrimination, exploitation and abuse".

In the 2013 auction, the Daredevils signed Jesse Ryder, Johan Botha and Jeevan Mendis. Mushtaq Ahmed and Jeremy Snape were appointed as the bowling consultant and performance coach respectively. The team also signed Muralidharen Gautam and exchanged Taylor for Ashish Nehra, who was a part of the Warriors.

References

;Notes

References

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