Delhi Capitals bowling coach James Hopes refused to read too much into their second successive defeat in IPL 2024 at the hands of Rajasthan Royals on Thursday. Hopes, speaking at the post-match press conference, talked about the things DC needed to improve, where they went wrong in the match and the role captain Rishabh Pant has to play for DC to perform better.
Delhi Capitals on Thursday succumbed to their second defeat in as many matches when they lost by 12 runs to Sanju Samson’s team. Despite David Warner and Tristin Stubbs’ best effort, they fell short in the end.
Not criticizing the bowlers: Hopes
Despite the defeat, Hopes backed his bowlers to come good. “It was a good first half with the ball. We took a timeout at the 9 over mark, the guys said the pitch was getting a lot better. We were pretty realistic with what we wanted to restrict them to, anything around 150-160. Got away from us to say the least in the last 5 overs. I won’t criticise our bowlers too much. It’s the first time that Nortje has been in this level in a while, he had a fair time out of the game. He is one of the premier death bowlers in the world and we’re sure he is going to get better with time,” Hopes said.
‘Ashwin took the game away from us’
Hopes said Ravichandran Ashwin’s brave batting helped Rajasthan Royals gain momentum before Riyan Parag finished with a flourish.
“I think there was an off spinner (Ashwin) who walked out at number 5 for Rajasthan Royals that took the game away from us by being brave with his batting. Then Parag finished the innings beautifully for them. We started really well (with the bat). We were ahead of the curve at the 8th-9th over but then it fell away for us. They bowled 10 overs of death bowling at us and executed it pretty well,” Hopes said.
‘Warner has started well’
Hopes also praised David Warner for starting the tournament on a high. Warner scored 49 of 34 balls on Thursday. Hopes said, “He has been the same David Warner he always is. He has started well, it’s going to be exciting to see how he goes about in the tournament.“
Key to a better future
Hopes laid out the blueprint for Delhi Capitals to succeed in the next matches.
“We need to tidy up what we do at the end of the game. It’s only one game, we don’t even count the first game because we had to take a bowler out for a batter and then Ishant went down. I am not going to judge us too harshly on one game. We need to tidy up on middle overs batting too. We tend to get stuck a little bit in phases. We know the fix for that is Pant and he has played two games after a long long layoff. I think you want to see some pretty special things from him from next week,” he said.
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