When asked about this rare achievement, skipper Virender Sehwag said it highlighted how well-balanced the team were. “I’ve always believed that one player can win you a Twenty20 game. It just depends on whose day it is. We have a balanced side, and there has been a different match-winner every time we’ve won,” he told The Indian Express.

Officials in the team say the work done by the Daredevils scouts and coaches in the off- season is paying dividends. “Planning is important. We signed David Warner early in the season and lapped up Dirk Nannes. We had worked out our combination well in advance, and knew exactly the players we needed. We knew who would play and kept a back-up for each department,” said TA Sekar, the team’s vice-president (cricket).

BASES COVERED

Delhi’s strength has been how solid they are in each department. Gambhir, Sehwag, Warner, Dilshan, De Villiers, and Dinesh Karthik make up a strong batting line-up, the bowling has Vettori, Nannes, Amit Mishra and Ashish Nehra, and in the fielding department Dilshan, de Villiers and Warner form a dangerous cordon, complemented by a fleet-footed mix of specialists. It was because of this almost set combination that England skipper Paul Collingwood and Owais Shah went back without playing a game, while the Australian duo of Glenn McGrath and Andrew McDonald haven’t made their appearance so far.

On Wednesday night, coach Greg Shipperd congratulated the squad in an impromptu speech in the team bus. “Dilshan’s creativity, Karthik’s brilliance, Mishra’s sacrifice, Sangwan’s fight...” he went on. “It’s great to see all of you eager to perform in all aspects of the game,” he said to a round of applause.

BLACK MAGIC

In the middle of these obvious cricketing reasons, Sekar throws up another interesting idea. “We underwent a colour change this season because some experts told us that black is a bad omen,” he said. “We didn’t want any negativity and decided to mix the red with blue this season. The change seems to have worked,” he said.

But keeping both superstition and planning aside, there have been a few strokes of luck as well. They were in the race for signing Moises Henriques but the Australian all-rounder went to Kolkata because he “couldn’t say no to John Buchanan”. As a result, they went hunting for a quick bowler and got a huge boost in the transfer market when acquiring Nehra gave them instant returns, and a better bargain than Mumbai, who got Shikhar Dhawan in return.

“Things are working out for us somehow,” Sehwag admitted. “Even in the way we’ve won matches, the rub of the green has been in our favour.”

Delhi had made the semi-finals last year, when they lost to eventual champions Rajasthan. This time, they feel, they have a better shot at going the distance.