2020 Delhi Capitals season
Delhi Capitals is a Twenty20 franchise cricket team based in Delhi, India. The team plays in the Indian Premier League and competed in the 2020 edition between September and November 2020.
Founded in 2008 as the Delhi Daredevils, the franchise is owned by the GMR Group and the JSW Group. The team's home ground is Arun Jaitley Stadium, located in New Delhi. Delhi capitals Delhi Capitals qualified for the finals first time in IPL 2020 after twelve years of the start of this tournament, and qualified for the IPL playoffs in 2019 for the first time in seven years. But they lost to Mumbai Indians in the final by 5 wickets and finished as runners up.
Background
Player retention and transfers
Retained players: Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Prithvi Shaw, Amit Mishra, Avesh Khan, Harshal Patel, Shikhar Dhawan, Ishant Sharma, Axar Patel, Kagiso Rabada, Sandeep Lamichhane and Keemo Paul.Released players: Colin Ingram, Colin Munro, Manjot Kalra, Hanuma Vihari, Chris Morris, Jalaj Saxena, Ankush Bains, Nathu Singh and Bandaru Ayyappa.
Traded In: Ravichandran Ashwin and Ajinkya Rahane
Traded Out: Sherfane Rutherford, Trent Boult and Rahul Tewatia
Replacement players: Praveen Dubey
Auction
The Capitals went into the auction with a purse of 27.85 Cr INR. Delhi Capitals retained 14 players and bought 8 players in the IPL Auction 2020. Their best purchases were Shimron Hetmyer for INR 775L and Marcus Stoinis for INR 480L. They were fortunate to get the services of Jason Roy and Chris Woakes at their base price. In addition to that, Delhi Capitals got Alex Carey for 240L INR.Players bought: Jason Roy, Alex Carey, Shimron Hetmyer, Chris Woakes, Marcus Stoinis, Lalit Yadav, Tushar Deshpande, Mohit Sharma.
Team analysis
ESPNcricinfo' wrote The team of Delhi Capitals wanted to buy Eoin Morgan, Glenn Maxwell, Sam Curran, Pat Cummins and Jaydev Unadkat in the auction, but this could not happen. In such a situation, the team had to turn to other options. The team used their limited resources to dominate the home ground. No batsman of the team could bowl. However, the franchise did a good job by buying Hetmyer and Alex Carey.Indian Premier League
On 20 September, the Delhi started with a win in the tournament, defeating Punjab's team in the super over. This thrilling match ended in a tie. Shreyas Iyer lost the toss and was put to bat. Delhi scored 157-run with the loss of 8 wickets in 20 overs. Team had lost early wickets, but Marcus Stoinis brilliant inning helped the Delhi to build a 157-run target. In response to 158 runs, Punjab also scored 157-run in 20 overs on Mayank Agarwal's knock of 89 runs.On 25 September, the Delhi Capitals enjoyed their second successive win, defeating Chennai Super Kings by 44-run. Shreyas Iyer lost the toss and was put to bat. Prithvi Shaw got the support from Shikhar Dhawan to build a 94-run partnership for first wicket and helped the Capitals finish the innings with 175/3 in their 20 overs. Chasing the target of 176, Super Kings got off to a poor start as they lost both their openers quickly, but Faf du Plessis and Kedar Jadhav stitched a partnership to keep Super Kings hopes, but their team managed only 131/7 in 20 overs.
On 14 October, during the 30th match of IPL against Rajasthan royals Anrich Nortje bowled the fastest ball and he also bowled out Jos Buttler.
After winning 7 out of 9 games, Delhi were placed at the top of the table with 14 points. However, they lost 4 consecutive games after it which rendered them vulnerable to be knocked out of the tournament. A victory in their final league stage match against Royal Challengers Bangalore ensured them a place in the playoffs. They reached the Qualifier 1 where they lost to Mumbai Indians by 57 runs.Then they won the Qualifier 2 against Sunrisers Hyderabad with Marcus Stoinis taking 3 wickets and scored 38 runs.Delhi reached their first final and played against Mumbai Indians.Mumbai Indians won comfortably by 5 wickets to win their fifth title.At the end of the season, Rabada was awarded the Purple Cap for taking 30 wickets.
Squad
- Players with international caps are listed in bold.
Teams and standings
League table
League stage
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Playoffs
;Qualifier 1----
;Qualifier 2
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;Final
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Statistics
Most runs
- Source: ESPNcricinfo
Most wickets
- Kagiso Rabada was awarded the Purple Cap as the bowler who took most wickets during the tournament
- Source: ESPNcricinfo
Awards and achievements
The following players were awarded the player of the match award during the tournament:| No. | Date | Player | Opponent | Result | Contribution | Ref. |
| 1 | Marcus Stoinis | Kings XI Punjab | Won in Super Over | 53 | ||
| 2 | Prithvi Shaw | Chennai Super Kings | Won by 15 runs | 64 | ||
| 3 | Shreyas Iyer | Kolkata Knight Riders | won by 18 runs | 88* | ||
| 4 | Axar Patel | Royal Challengers Bangalore | won by 59 runs | 2/18 | ||
| 5 | 9 October 2020 | Ravichandran Ashwin | Rajasthan Royals | Won by 46 runs | 2/ 22 | |
| 6 | 14 October 2020 | Anrich Nortje | Rajasthan Royals | Won by 13 runs | 2/33 | |
| 7 | 17 October 2020 | Shikhar Dhawan | Chennai Super Kings | Won by 5 wickets | 101* | |
| 8 | 20 October 2020 | Shikhar Dhawan | Kings XI Punjab | Lost by 5 wickets | 106* | |
| 9 | 2 November 2020 | Anrich Nortje | Royal Challengers Bangalore | Won by 6 wickets | 3/33 | |
| 11 | 8 November 2020 – Qualifier 2 | Marcus Stoinis | Sunrisers Hyderabad | Won by 17 runs and advanced to the final | 38 and 3/26 |