Delhi Daredevils (DD) spin coach, Sridharan Sriram believes Andre Russell took the game away from them, as Delhi suffered their third defeat out of four games in this edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Meanwhile, the muscle Russell was on another planet on Monday with his clean hitting. He struck the ball like nobody else, as he took the game away from the visitors.
Batting first, Kolkata posted 200 runs on the board banking on Russell (41) and Nitish Rana (59).
However, it was Russell, who knocked the visitors out of this game. Russell struck six towering sixes with a maximum of 102 m. Andre was also in line to break KL Rahul‘s record of fastest fifty but fell short of nine runs.
Russell took the game away
Sriram resonated Russell’s knock behind Delhi’s defeat. He also admitted Russell made Mohammed Shami lose the plot which cost the game.
“Russell’s blitz took the game away from us. We had done all the planning but couldn’t execute them. It was a match-winning inning. He made (Mohammed) Shami lose the plot for six-seven deliveries, and that was enough for him to have a bad game,” Sriram said.
Delhi suffered yet another thumping loss by 71 runs and has had the worst start possible. However, Sriram believes without Russell’s knock could manage to get only 170 runs which is a par score.
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“Rana wasn’t going to be as dangerous as Russell. Till Russell walked in, we were in the game; the way we bowled to Lynn was extraordinary, but then Russell hit a couple of sixes…these things tend to happen,” he added.
Need to address powerplay bowling
Sriram admitted they need to improve their powerplay bowling where they are leaking too many runs.
“Against Kings XI Punjab, KL Rahul ran away with the game, and against Mumbai Indians, we went for 84. Tonight, after four overs for 19, we ended the power play at 50. So, it needs to be addressed and addressed very quickly,” Sriram concluded.
