Former Australia captain Aaron Finch was left baffled by Axar Patel‘s decision to bat first against the Chennai Super Kings, despite the Delhi Capitals not having won a single game defending a total this season. The decision came back to haunt the captain and the management as Chennai chased down 156 in 17.3 overs with eight wickets in hand on Tuesday at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.
Speaking to ESPNcricinfo, Finch tore into Axar for the “head-scratching” call, saying it “made no sense” at all, especially with so much information available to teams in the age of data and analytics.
“Absolutely, it was a big mess up. You can’t sugarcoat it. When you have all the information with you—that they haven’t won batting first—it makes no sense. We keep scratching our heads with some of the decisions DC make,” he said, reflecting on the toss call after the game.
Finch also pointed out that repeated tactical blunders have been a concern for Delhi throughout the season, with the team slipping from a top-four spot early on to seventh after their 10th game.
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“See, I can understand gut-feel calls made on the field, I can also understand poor execution—winning and losing are all part of the game. But when you are making black-and-white decisions wrong time and time again, that’s a concern,” he added.
Why did Axar opt to bat first?
Speaking at the toss, the Delhi captain explained that he expected the pitch to slow down in the second innings and hence wanted to bat first to give his bowlers an advantage.
“We will bat first. I think the surface looks good, and we feel it’s a very good pitch. Maybe in the second innings it might slow down a bit, so I’d like to give that advantage to our bowlers,” he had said.
However, Delhi were reduced to 69 for five inside 11 overs. Impact sub Sameer Rizvi and Tristan Stubbs then stitched a crucial 65-run stand to help DC post a competitive total. But 155 was never going to threaten Chennai, with Sanju Samson carving out a well-measured 87 not out and adding an unbeaten 93-run stand with Kartik Sharma, who scored 41 off 31.
Delhi will next face the Kolkata Knight Riders on May 8.
