MUMBAI: Delhi Capitals captain Rishabh Pant says his side need to quickly sort out the ‘pattern’ of losing wickets in a group and look to play fewer balls through the middle to turn things around after suffering defeats successive in the IPL.
The Capitals opened their IPL season with a victory over the fearsome Mumbai Indians, but fell to two straight defeats against the Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Super Giants.
“As a batting unit we have to find ways to improve. In the last two or three games we see a trend, we have to work on not losing wickets in a group and playing less balls in the middle,” Pant said.
“If we work on those things going forward in the tournament, we can do well,” he said in the post-match conference after his side lost to LSG by six wickets here on Thursday. .
“(Mitchell) Marsh was (to be) in the first XI but due to an international commitment and he got injured (while training in Pakistan ahead of Australia’s clean-ball series there ) and he couldn’t come. Obviously we miss him.”
The Delhi Capitals failed to capitalize after fly-half Prithvi Shaw’s sizzling 61-for-31 shot, losing three wickets in three overs for just seven runs, to eventually end their innings at 149 for 3.
“Just like in the first two matches, we lost two-three wickets together, successively in two-three overs and that had put the pressure on. But me and Sarfaraz tried to build a partnership and in the last match, Avesh (Khan ) and (Jason) Holder had some really good two-three overs in the end, so we couldn’t get away with 10 more runs.
Pant was criticized for giving spinner Axar Patel just two overs in the LSG chase, but the DC captain defended the move.
“Axar was not given to the bowl because there were two left-handed batters playing and between Quinton de Kock was placed the batsman who hit until (towards) the last. When de Kock was out (at the 16th over) at that time it was very late to give the ball to Axar,” Pant said.
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Spinner Kuldeep Yadav was brought in to finish 16th during LSG’s chase in place of South African pacer Anrich Nortje, who had to be taken out of the attack after throwing two balls without a waist ball.
Asked about the reason for using Kuldeep at the time, Pant said: “Earlier we had a discussion about whether Kuldeep should play the bowl later or complete it (his quota). We thought that since the dew was already there, the spinners might not be as effective later in the innings. So instead of saving Kuldeep for last, we figured we’d save the fast bowlers for last. That’s why we went with Kuldeep.
“Kuldeep has been working hard for a year, he was injured. He has a chance after a long time and we try to support him as much as possible. We give him confidence so he can continue with his own style of bowling. He tries to capitalize on that and I think he plays well.
Pant said Rovman Powell was sent to number 3 “to get off to a good start on the power play. team. It didn’t pay off.”
Pant didn’t go out on 39 of 36 with the help of three fours and two sixes. When asked if he had trouble clearing the ropes, Pant said: “One day the bowlers are going to have a good day and it was one of those good days. In the first innings the ball was stopping more because there was no dew and so they (LSG) could capitalize on that and that’s why we were 10 points short at the end.”
