Delhi Daredevils back to losing ways

NEW DELHI: Joy has been a rare commodity for the Delhi Daredevils this season. The delight of their nine-wicket thrashing of the Mumbai Indians last Sunday was short-lived as the home side landed with a thud at the Ferozeshah Kotla with a five-wicket loss at the hands of Kings XI Punjab on Tuesday.The Daredevils' planning was awry right from the selection of the side on a slow-turning track. The decision to drop left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem was proved to be a poor one as tweakers from both sides prospered on the Kotla track.Kings XI always had the match in control once they restricted the Daredevils to 120/7. The chase had its wobbles at 50/3 and then 70/4 but for the Delhi bowlers the total was too meagre to defend.The Daredevils have now been condemned to their seventh loss in eight games with only a mathematical chance left of qualifying for the later stages.In-form Mandeep Singh blasted 24 off 15 balls with five boundaries to ease the task for the visitors. It was left to the two Davids — Miller (34 n.o., 39b, 3x4) and Hussey (20, 21b, 1x4, 1x6) — to complete the formalities.The latter fell with the target in touching distance but the result was inevitable. Earlier, logical thinking took a back seat - like it has for most of this season - as the Delhi Daredevils batsmen threw their wickets away even as David Warner (40, 36b, 4x4, 1x6) waged a lone furrow.Australian Warner, demoted to No. 4 in the batting order, was the only one who put up a semblance of a fight as Daredevils posted 120 for seven after Kings XI sent them in.The woeful display started right at the start with skipper Mahela Jayawardene walking back with merely four on the board. His partner, Virender Sehwag (23, 21b, 2x4, 1x6) looked in good touch although nowhere near the destructive mood he was in on Sunday against Mumbai.The move to send South African Roelof van der Merwe (8) at No. 3 came a cropper as he found the slow nature of the Kotla track hard to handle. The military-medium pace of Harmeet Singh (3/24) did most of the damage for Kings XI.His biggest scalp was Sehwag, who spooned a catch to Mandeep Singh at covers. Manprit Juneja (14) and Kedar Jadhav (0) were his other two victims even as Warner watched the procession from the other end.The Australian opener didn't find any support from the middle-order as Delhi collapsed to 89/6 by the 15th over.