One month ago today, thanks to your votes, I decided to follow the Delhi Daredevils. On Sunday, they bowed out of the IPL, after losing narrowly to the Deccan Chargers. So, how did my month of supporting the Double D's go?
To start, it was more than a month. Just before last year's IPL, I decided that to enjoy it properly I needed to pick a team. And I chose the Delhi Daredevils. I liked their adidas kit, I liked the fact that Paul Collingwood and Owais Shah were signed to them, and I liked the fact that Dirk Nannes actually played for them. As I've previously said on the blog, I didn't pay much attention to IPL2, so I didn't actually notice that Delhi didn't win until I saw a piece on Cricinfo celebrating Deccan's win. However, in view of my position as Lingfield's premier cricket blogger, I vowed to follow this year's version. And thanks to your votes, I again supported the Daredevils.
Just like the Daredevils, I started off well. I was there (well, watching on ITV4) when Warer hit his ton, and as victory after victory led Delhi to look as though they would qualify comfortably. And then, the wheels came off. I was no longer watching, with overall IPL length cheif amongst a list of factors stopping me following the DD's. Amazingly, having no idea how anyone was doing IPL-wise, I turned on ITV4 late on Sunday afternoon to see my boys 7 down needing 50 from the last 5. And despite a Collingwood 50 (who at least got a game this year), Delhi fell agonisingly close. Oh dear.
My support of Delhi is a bit like my support of Crystal Palace. As a Chelsea fan, there are often bigger and more tropical fish to fry, but I keep an eye out for my local team, and want to see them succeed. But for all my goodwill, I don't lose any sleep when they lose. In a cricketing sense, Middlesex are my Chelsea (maybe not the best example), and Delhi are my Palace. Just like the Eagles, Delhi
do have a large number of passionate supporters, but ultimately, they play in a league I'm not really interested in. (Sorry Palace fans)
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