"I think I went a bit overboard with tactics in the 19th over," Axar Patel joked after last season’s win at Bengaluru, looking back at the over that ended up costing him 17 runs. A year later, at the same Chinnaswamy Stadium against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, the Delhi Capitals skipper took charge of a different spell—bowling the 16th himself and then handing the 17th to spin partner Kuldeep Yadav. The end result was familiar, but the route to get there wasn’t. That contrast is the real story: for a couple of seasons now, Delhi’s recovery work has often been stitched together by KL Rahul and Tristan Stubbs, yet those comebacks didn’t arrive by luck alone. They were supported by deliberate bowling decisions at the times that mattered most, and even the toss and the nature of the pitch played their part. Still, once you strip away those helpful circumstances, what stands out is the deeper strength—Axar’s ability to keep outthinking batters, and a bowling unit designed to give him that exact space to operate.
Last year, Axar had thrown three overs of spin at RCB during the Powerplay, doing an excellent job of dragging the brakes on Phil Salt and Virat Kohli after they sparked quickly. The plan made sense on paper: RCB’s right-handed-heavy top order, a surface offering grip and hold, and away-spin that could exploit that angle. This season, the opening six overs were completely different—Delhi didn’t bowl a single spin ball in that phase. On another day, that choice could invite questions, particularly because 18 of RCB’s 59 runs in the Powerplay had come in the over Axar gave to Auqib Nabi for the third time. But today, scrutiny doesn’t land, because the key point isn’t whether Axar picked one option over another. It’s that he wasn’t forced into just one route at all.
To understand how Delhi’s bowling works, it helps to start with a player who isn’t even there yet. Mitchell Starc’s absence has opened the door for Lungi Ngidi, and Ngidi has proved to be the kind of bowler who can move through phases—taking on Virat Kohli early with a first-ball strike in the Powerplay, hitting hard lengths through the middle overs, and finishing with a mix of slower deliveries that dip and heavier balls that test timing. T. Natarajan plays his role through the center, targeting the toes at the death. Kuldeep Yadav, the wrist spinner, is available to be brought into the middle overs as well. And Axar Patel, the left-arm finger spinner, can be used in the Powerplay and beyond. With those pieces in place, Mukesh Kumar and Auqib Nabi are freed up to attack any swing that exists early on. Mukesh was again effective, and Nabi did begin well too, before things unravelled in his third over.
Seeing the same fixture a year apart creates a useful comparison because teams are often working with largely similar personnel during an ongoing IPL cycle, and yet Delhi’s approach with the ball appears more refined. Where Axar had bowled the second over last season, he held back for much longer this time, only getting into the attack in the ninth over. After the match, Delhi’s Director of Cricket Venugopal Rao explained the hesitation by pointing to left-handed Devdutt Padikkal and a recent dip in form that had influenced the decision. Head coach Hemang Badani even suggested he nearly had to “implore” Axar—“Bapu,” as he put it—to bowl. But Axar is experienced enough to avoid being trapped into a one-dimensional role. He moved quickly into rhythm, first finding drift that pulled Padikkal out of position as the batter charged down and got beaten in the flight—saved only by a faint edge that slipped away from the keeper. Two balls later, Axar dragged the length back and got the breakthrough anyway. Padikkal couldn’t generate pace off a surface that wasn’t giving him much, and he ended up holed out.
Ideally, Delhi’s captain might have rolled straight through with four consecutive overs from that point. Instead, when the next batter walked in, Rajat Patidar arrived at a time when form was clearly on his side early in the season. In a pre-season conversation with Cricbuzz, Patidar had spoken about how much he enjoys facing pace, noting that his strike rate against quicks (227.7) was actually better than against spin (197.1) entering this match. As a matter of principle, though, he was allowed to face very little spin at all. Delhi didn’t surrender those spin overs lightly—Axar still refused to give Patidar what he wanted, even if it meant keeping spin close to the death overs where the risk rises.
The idea is easy to connect to a lesson Mumbai Indians had learned earlier against the RCB captain. When Mayank Markande was thrown at Virat Kohli, the damage was immediate—four sixes in a row. So Patidar didn’t receive a single ball of spin during his early period at the crease. Ngidi and Mukesh Kumar returned to bowl instead, coming in with angles that either went into the pitch or swung wide outside off, forcing the batter to reach rather than settle. On one wide Mukesh delivery, Patidar swung hard and missed the broad bat and only managed an edge that carried to Rahul behind the stumps. By 13 overs, RCB were 131 for 4, still within range of a 200-plus score, but the lower order suddenly faced a different kind of challenge.
Axar came back for the 14th over and conceded just seven as Jitesh Sharma struggled to cope with the surface. That set up another tactical moment when Axar returned for his third—his 16th over. Tim David refused to face spin and stayed on strike, sensing the pitch better from the other end. Axar’s response was to slow the next ball down and bowl wide outside David’s reach. David still went after it, sliced it to short man, and walked off. Suddenly Romario Shepherd was left facing Kuldeep Yadav in the 17th over—an unusual matchup not because Shepherd lacks power, but because he was now being asked to deal with a left-arm wrist spinner operating with fine leg up. Where he would normally clear his front foot and swing through against pace, Shepherd adjusted and tried a sweep for a boundary. But a full ball trapped him, and RCB were six down for 151, with their batting lineup running short of the sort of tools needed to push the total beyond par.
The finish was handled in a straightforward way. Ngidi and Natarajan combined their variations and yorkers against RCB batters who couldn’t negotiate the late-innings pressure once the overs narrowed. RCB managed only 29 runs in the final five overs. That total was just two runs more than the 27 they had produced in the death-overs phase in Sharjah six years ago. At times, T20 outcomes can look like happenstance—one nick can change everything, one fall can shift the rhythm. If Patidar had gotten that edge, he might have faced spin sooner. If David hadn’t fallen when he did, he could have attacked pace and added around 20 more runs in the death.
What makes Delhi’s bowling stand out, though, is its flexibility. Axar and Natarajan combined for only five overs, and they shared 34 runs between them. On another night, Axar could have started the innings, while Natarajan might have carried three overs at the death. Earlier this season, when Rishabh Pant walked out to open specifically to negate Axar in the Powerplay, Axar simply waited—because Delhi had enough bowling elsewhere to absorb that adjustment. RCB, despite the quality of their attack, didn’t have the same kind of elastic options. When Suyash Sharma proved expensive and the best bowlers were forced to be used earlier because the chase target was small, their later overs ended up depending heavily on Shepherd. The death may not be Shepherd’s strongest phase, even if his value as an all-rounder remains significant. In a season where batting exploits—big totals and big sixes—have often dominated the narrative, Delhi’s bowling offers a quiet but emphatic counter-argument. It’s both effective and adaptable. And with a captain who can laugh at his own tactical overreach one season and correct it the next, that adaptability might be the most compelling aspect to watch across the tournament.
