Kirsten, Pietersen will make DD fans forget 2013 nightmare

It was a spring of hope that turned into a summer of despair. It was a season of darkness; it was the worst of times and one every pukka Delhi-ite will want to forget.

Delhi daredevils had a horrific IPL season last year after reaching the semifinals 2008, ‘09 and ‘12 and being the only semifinalist from IPL in CLT20 2012. There have been times when the team has blown apart opposition in the league stages but surrendered meekly in the knockout’s, giving rise to talk that DD is the IPL equivalent of South Africa, possessing talent but also a dangerous ability ‘to choke’ under pressure.

But I say this year is going to be different. It will be different because a team is often defined by the people who lead it, and this time DD will be conditioned by World Cup winning coach Gary Kirsten, and will display the captaincy skills of controversy’s own child Kevin Pietersen, who by his own admission is looking for a way back into the England squad.

It’s different because all these years DD have been good chasers but faltered when put in to bat first. Of the 88 matches DD played in the league stages they have won 42 of them - a staggering 29 of these while chasing. From the start of the IPL leading up to this season with the exception of 2011, DD have always won more games batting first. This in turn explains why DD have not done well in the knockouts because of their inability to put runs on the board and then defend them with panache. But this year DD have a strong sensible lineup of in-form batsmen in Ross Taylor, JP Duminy, Kevin Pietersen, Dinesh Karthik and Jimmy Neesham who are known big hitters while chasing huge, stiff targets and equally good while pacing the innings.

The only exception and potential black hole this year is the spin department, with the least experience of all sides in tweaking the while ball and nobody there to settle the nerves in case something goes awry with the young Shabhaz Nadeem and Rahul Sharma. It can cost DD big time this season as the auction strategy did not take into account the slow and low pitches of UAE with the dangerous prospects of another slow start to the season looming ahead.

However, if DD can overcome this minor setback in the spin department at the start of the season then they would be the team to beat as it’s the only franchisee loaded with stars with a burning desire to prove something to the cricketing world even if they deny it publicly (who wouldn’t love to see Kevin Pietersen holding that Champions League inspired golden replica of a trophy at the season’s end?).

This could be DD’s season of redemption. And many DD supporters will be dancing to the tunes of that Bob Marley classic ‘the redemption song’: for Old pirates, yes, they rob I; Sold I to the merchant ships; Minutes after they took I; From the bottomless pit; But my hand was made strong; By the hand of the Almighty; We forward in this generation. Triumphantly.