Sourav Ganguly (L) is the Director of Cricket of Delhi Capitals© BCCI
Delhi Capitals clinched their first win of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 by 4 wickets against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Thursday and luck certainly played a key role in their victory. Unexpectedly rain intervened and forced the game to start late than usual. The new circumstances took KKR by surprise and DC grabbed the opportunity that was knocking at their door. The DC batsmen, however, struggled to chase down the low target as their batting unit once again proved to be a major problem in their unsuccessful campaign.
“We were on the lucky side today. We bowled well earlier this season as well. But the problem is batting. We need to go back and look at ourselves and see how we can be better. The spinners bowled well. I know we have.” Didn’t play well and need to find a way to bat better. We work hard with the boys and get them back in form. Be it Prithvi, Manish, or Mitch Marsh. They have been key players and for the time being we have a day off tomorrow for our respective teams and then we fly to Hyderabad, hopefully, it will be a good batting wicket there, as it usually is ,” said Sourav Ganguly Director of Cricket, Delhi Capitals.
The pressure of scoring their first points in IPL 2023 not only affected the players but also the management. For Ganguly, the pressure of getting the first run of the campaign was like scoring his first run in the Test format.
I was sitting there in the dugout and thinking what it was like to have my first Test run (about the pressure of getting my first score of the season).
Kolkata Knight Riders were asked to bat first and they managed to post a total of 127 runs on the board. Andre Russell’s last-over heroics played a crucial role in setting up the target. Russell hit three sixes in the last over. Delhi started their innings well but lost wickets in quick succession. The game went down to the last over and Akshar Patel made sure to finish off the chase of 128 with four balls to spare.
Delhi Capitals will be eager to build on the winning streak against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Monday.
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