It is not so often that the highest scorer of a match ends not only on losing, but inadvertently, it can contribute to the loss of your team.
This is exactly what happened with Shikhar Dhawan in Delhi's Ferozeshah Kotla on Tuesday.
Dhawan was the highest scorer of the match - he scored 51, but Delhi capitol was defeated by a massive winner, Chennai Super Kings, with 6 wickets (with 2 balls) in a solid all-round performance.
Due to the slow-down shift of his captain Shreyas Iyer and Dhawan, Delhi did not have enough runs.
The Southeast had made a temporary start and marked the third person of Deepak Chahar's bowling with a thick outer edge. He just recorded two more fours and played 10 dot balls and made 16 runs out of 17 in the powerplay.
Delhi could only have scored 43 runs in the first six overs - although there were indications of two slow wickets, but there was not enough initiative on the top. The beginning was defensive and was a bit cautious.
Even after this, the tempo did not change. In fact, the run-rate dipped further. Delhi scored just 27 runs in the next 5 overs. Scored 11 runs after 1. After 11, Dhawan faced 14 more balls and scored only 9 runs during this period. He did not hit a single round at this stage.
It was a strange strategy by Delhi. Neither they had lost the early wickets nor was it difficult to bat on the wicket. Apart from this, they were setting a goal and keeping in mind that there was 'lack of an aggressive approach' at the top!
There was a lot of pressure on Rishabh Pant and Colin Ingram batting on 4 and 5 respectively.
Although Dhawan tried and formerly used four more rounds, it was a very classic case. Apart from continuous invasions for a short time (41 wickets partnership between Dhawan and Pant for 3 wickets), Pant's courtesy (25 in 13 balls), the innings did not really take the innings.
In the lower order, much contribution could not be made, and Delhi lost wickets in the succession after Pant's dismissal. Dhawan was dismissed for 51 off 47 balls in the 18th over. The last push never came.
It was a high risk shift of Dhawan. By not taking the initiative to the front, they left a lot for themselves on death - but the last encouragement never came. He also put pressure on other batsmen, who did not have many deliveries to close their eyes in an attempt to push the run-rate.
The average score at Kotla was 157.72 and the home team was very low (they finished with 147 runs for 6 wickets).
Although opener Dhawan has an average of 35.67 average in IPL, but his strike rate of 124.46 is less than the standard criteria. He can no longer play the role of an anchor that he played for Sunrise Hyderabad.
In his last 10 limited innings, his collective strike rate of 102.56 is equal.
Dhawan played a similar innings in Delhi's Season Opener - 43 in 36 balls, (strike rate of 119.44) in Mumbai. A stampede made a camouflage, which knocks with a blitzkrieg.
This was a different story in Delhi today. Dhawan will need to redefine his role at the top.
