Delhi Capitals’ Director of Cricket Operations Sourav Ganguly was finally relieved after they got on the board after beating Kolkata Knight Riders by four wickets at their home venue of Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi on Thursday.
Ganguly gave credit to the bowling unit, which kept KKR to a below-par score of 127 runs after a one-hour delay due to rain. Ishant Sharma, making his return to the IPL after a long hiatus, was able to hit the ground running at his home venue. The lanky paceman returned with figures of 2-19 in his quota of four overs as he dismissed Nitish Rana and Sunil Narine.
Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav also took two wickets apiece in the middle overs as KKR kept losing wickets at regular intervals.
DC was able to chase down the target after their skipper David Warner scored a fine knock of 57 runs from 41 balls and batted at the top of his game.
Sourav Ganguly admitted that batting has been their Achilles Heel in the first five matches as they haven’t been able to come up with a collective show. The likes of Mitchell Marsh, Prithvi Shaw, David Warner, and Manish Pandey have failed to bat at their best.
Sourav Ganguly said after the game, “Happy to get off the mark. I was sitting there in the dugout and thinking it was like getting my first Test run (about the pressure to get their first points of the season). We were on the luckier side today. We bowled well before as well this season. But the problem is the batting. We need to go back and look at ourselves and see how we can get better.”
He continued, “Spinners bowled well. I know we have not played 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, Mitch Marsh. They have been important players and around for a while for their respective teams. We have a day off tomorrow and then fly to Hyderabad, hopefully, it will be a good batting wicket there, it usually is.”
Delhi Capitals will fly to Hyderabad to take on Sunrisers Hyderabad on Monday at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium.
