Delhi Capitals Director of Cricket and former Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Sourav Ganguly has waited a long time for DC’s first win in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023. After five successive losses, David Warner’s side finally posted a win, defeating Kolkata Knight Riders by four wickets at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on Thursday.
In a rain-delayed game, DC restricted Bollywood-star Shah Rukh Khan owned KKR to 127 all out with Axar Patel and Ishant Sharma picking up a couple of wickets easy. Warner then took charge and top-scored with 57 off 41 balls as DC complete the chase with four balls to spare.
After the win, Ganguly said that DC’s first win of the season felt like his ‘first Test’. “I was thinking it was like my first Test: happy to get off the mark! We have bowled well this season. These are good pitches and fast outfields, but the problem is the batting. We need to go back and look at ourselves as to how we can do better,” Ganguly said during the post-match presentation.
“(Anrich) Nortje has been outstanding. Good to see Ishant (Sharma) and Mukesh (Kumar). I wouldn’t say it is an inexperienced line-up… Many of them have been around for a long time. They also know it’s time to put up a better batting performance,” the former BCCI president added.
WATCH DC’s Axar Patel hammer the winning runs HERE…
This moment, this moment is what we call HAPPINESS __pic.twitter.com/6AeGnyDxsx
— Delhi Capitals (@DelhiCapitals) April 20, 2023
Skipper Warner though wasn’t pleased that his side lost wickets in a ‘cluster’ during the chase. “Great to get the two points. It’s awesome, we are really proud of the bowling unit. We asked for wickets in the powerplay, and they did that. Again we lost wickets in a cluster. We can have those upfront conversations. We played an okay game,” Warner said after the match.
Veteran India pacer Ishant Sharma, who played his first IPL match since 2021, was the ‘Player of the Match’ claiming 2/19 before being substituted. “I was just waiting for my chance. That’s all I was thinking. Every single day the areas (of bowling) change… we talk about the plans. There’s no lucky charm in the team. We want to win every single game from here,” Ishant said.
