Sourav Ganguly miffed with Delhi Capitals' batting woes: 'Need to work hard'

Delhi Capitals’s Axar Patel (right) and Lalit Yadav appear relieved after their win over Kolkata Knight Riders in Delhi on Thursday. Pic/PTI

There is little doubt that the Delhi Capitals (DC) have a big problem with their batting as was evident in the way they huffed and puffed their way to a rather simple target of 128 against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Thursday night.

Had KKR wicketkeeper Litton Das, who missed two stumpings at the fag end, been a bit sharper, the result could well have been different.

Top-order form, a worry

The Delhi Capitals will undoubtedly be happy to notch up their first win in six games, but they are far from resolving the issues, especially the form of their top-order batsmen. "We were on the luckier side today. We have bowled well before as well this season, but the problem is our batting. We need to go back and look at ourselves and see how we can get better. I know we have not played well and need to find a way to bat better. We need to work hard with the boys and get them back in form. Be it Prithvi [Shaw], Manish [Pandey], or Mitch Marsh. They are important players and have been around for a while for their respective teams," Sourav Ganguly, DC's Director of Cricket, said after their maiden win in a match that was delayed by rain.

Skipper David Warner missed a reverse sweep off a full toss and was caught plumb in front. Luckily, a limping Axar Patel hung on till the end to see his team through with four wickets to spare.

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Irresponsible shots

The batsmen from both sides went for extravagant shots and lost their wickets. KKR skipper Nitish Rana tried to hit his fellow Delhi Ranji player Ishant Sharma out of the park, but holed out at mid-on in the sixth over itself. "I think we were 15-20 runs short on this difficult pitch. I take responsibility for this. I should have stood there [till the end of the innings]," Rana said after the defeat.

"We need to play well as a team. We need to bowl the way we did today, and if we manage to sort our batting, we can fight better in the remaining eight games," Rana added.