Delhi Capitals Director of Cricket Sourav Ganguly expressed his delight in winning the 1st match in the league stage of the 16th edition of the Indian Premier League. David Warner-led side had a tragic start to the league losing five games on the trot before winning their 1st match against KKR on Thursday.
Delhi Capitals have collectively failed in the initial games of the league as they were outplayed in the first five matches of IPL 2023. Former Indian Skipper Sourav Ganguly, who is currently part of the Delhi Capitals support staff, was relieved by their first victory in the league stage. Speaking on their 1st victory.
“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), 25 years ago. We were on the luckier side today,” Sourav Ganguly said.
Coming into the match, Due to the rain the start had a delayed start in the Arun Jaitely stadium, Kolkata Knight Riders made three changes in their lineup with Jason Roy and Litton Das making their debut for the two-time champions.
KKR had a poor outing with the bat as they were bowled out for 127 runs in 20 overs with Jason Roy being the top-scorer for his with 43 runs off 39 balls and a small cameo by Andre Russell 38* (31). Delhi Capitals bowlers were brilliant with the ball as Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, and Ishant Sharma picked up 2 wickets each giving less than a run a ball in their quota of overs.
With 128 runs to chase to register their first victory, David Warner went all guns blazing in the powerplay to score at a quick pace for his side, as the wicket fell on the other side, as they lost Prithvi Shaw, Mitchell Marsh, Phit Salt, and Manish Pandey in the quick time putting the team in struggling position.
Kolkata Knight Riders bowled 16 overs of spin for their 20 overs and with 7 runs to win in the final over, Axar Patel showed his experience to complete the chase with 4 balls to spare to register their 1st win in the league stage.
We Need To Find A Way To Bat Better – Sourav Ganguly On Things To Improve For Delhi Capitals
Sourav Ganguly lauded their bowlers for bowling exceptionally well this season and said that batters were the weak link for the team and added that batters need to find their form quickly in the league.
“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. 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,” Sourav Ganguly added.
The former Indian skipper wants the top-order batters to responsible in the batting and believes that the Hyderabad wicket would favour their batters to score high as it usually provides a good wicket for batting.
“Be it Prithvi, Manish, or 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, as it usually is,” said the former India captain.
Delhi Capitals will take on 2016 Champions Sunrisers Hyderabad in their 7th league game on April 24 on Monday and they will look to build on their winning moment against the Aiden Markram-led side.