Small mistakes, big trouble

Right after their first game, just over a month ago, Virender Sehwag and his team were put down as firm title-contenders. After winning four of their first five games, they looked to be on their way.

But even when they lost their next four games 8212; away to Mumbai, at home to Chennai, and away in Jaipur and Kolkata 8212; they weren8217;t being written off.

Much like their batting order, their problems came in the tournament8217;s middle; much like their captain, the team reacted to the narrowest of defeats with a smile on their collective face.

Lapses of reason

One reason for that could be that they haven8217;t lost the plot completely, not in the way Rahul Dravid and his crumbling army have. It8217;s been momentary lapses of reason, instead, that could come back to haunt this team if they fail to make the last four.

Against Chennai at the Kotla, they were in complete control 8212;defending 15 off the last over with S Badrinath and MS Gony at the crease 8212; before Shoaib Malik sent down the most forgettable six deliveries of his life.

Then, against Kolkata, their bowlers had done the job, restricting Sourav Ganguly8217;s side to a modest 134. The batting crumbled, in part to an extraordinary spell by Shoaib Akhtar, but in equal measure to some ordinary batting.

And in their last home game, against Mohali, they forgot to put on their thinking caps as the rain came down. Delhi were sitting pretty on 81 for one off 8.1 overs when a sharp shower shortened the contest to 11 overs a side. In the four overs that they batted after a two-hour break, they lost three wickets 8212; Messrs Duckworth and Lewis seldom forgive such basic errors and Mohali raced away to the mildly-adjusted target from 118 to 123.

Semi-final race

Their next opponents are Kolkata Knight Riders, who are weighed down by a rather temperamental top-order and a fresh controversy. Unfortunately for the hosts, they are equally hungry for that semi-final spot.

Despite a good run in the Ranji Trophy one-dayers, Aakash Chopra doesn8217;t quite send shivers down spines as Sehwag or Gambhir do, and Ganguly himself has bowled better than he has batted 8212; that8217;s handy, but not ideal.

Of the two Delhi players in the away dugout, Ishant Sharma is the one Delhi will be more worried about. The fast bowler has come leaps and bounds since the trip to Australia, and if he can make an impact on Delhi8217;s top three, the contest might turn out to be as interesting as the race to the semi-finals.