"Tonight was a missed opportunity for us": DC bowling coach James Hopes after loss to Kolkata
Apr 30, 2024
Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], April 30 : Following the loss against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, Delhi Capitals (DC) bowling coach James Hopes reflected on the loss saying that tonight was a missed opportunity for the side.
After back-to-back wins at home, DC went down by seven wickets in their away match against KKR at Eden Gardens on Monday.
Kuldeep Yadav's resilient unbeaten knock of 35 runs from 26 balls helped the Capitals to post 153/9 in 20 overs. However, the home side chased down the target in 16.3 overs, courtesy of Phil Salt's 68 off 33.
Speaking about the decision of opting to bat first, the Delhi franchise's Hopes explained, "The thought process behind it was, we're having some success trying to put a big score on the board and then trying to defend it, and I think we knew there wasn't going to be much dew."
He added, "We knew when we started batting we probably had to get a score of 200. We might have just aimed a bit too high and didn't understand quickly enough that the wicket was sticking for the spinners. We got two pretty good spinners ourselves, and maybe aiming for the 180 to 210 score was more realistic and more defendable."
Delhi Capitals have now lost six, won five in their 11 matches so far and are currently placed sixth on the points table. With three games to go, Hopes stated, "Our destiny is still in our own hands. If we can win three games and get the 16 points, that should be good enough."
"But we do have a week off now where we can readjust and see if we need to think a little differently about anything. We are going back to Delhi for two of the three games, obviously a very high-scoring venue at the moment and we're going to Bangalore as well, obviously another high-scoring venue. Tonight was a missed opportunity by us and we won't hide behind any excuses for that," he concluded.
The Delhi Capitals will take on Rajasthan Royals in their next match of IPL 2024 at Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on May 7, Saturday.
