IPL 2024: Delhi Capitals Should Have Set a Realistic Total, Says Bowling Coach James Hopes

Delhi Capitals (DC) suffered a seven-wicket defeat against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the IPL 2024 match played at Eden Gardens, Kolkata on Monday. DC bowling coach James Hopps was disappointed to miss an opportunity. “Tonight was a missed opportunity for us and we’re not going to hide behind any excuses for that,” he said. DC got off to a good start on a slow wicket as Prithvi Shaw hit three boundaries in the first over off Mitchell Starc and tickled him behind the ball off Vaibhav Arora. Jake Fraser-McGurk struggled to time the ball before giving Starc his wicket.

Shai Hope was then bowled by Arora as DC ended the Powerplay at 67/3.

Skipper Rishabh Pant and Abhishek Porel formed a partnership but wickets kept falling. Porel (18), Akshar Patel (15), Tristan Stubbs (4) and Kumar Kushagr (1) all got out cheaply as DC went after the bowling. Pant scored 27 off 20 balls and fell victim to Varun Chakraborty, who took three wickets including Stubbs and Kushagr. Kuldeep Yadav played a useful innings to help Delhi cross the 150-run mark. When Hopps was asked about his decision to bat first after winning the toss, he explained that DC wanted to rely on what had been working for them in their recent wins.

“I think the thought process behind it was, have some success getting a big score on the board and then try to defend it. I think we knew there wouldn’t be much fog and there isn’t. There was barely any dew at the end. We knew batting first that we wanted a score of 2 against him. And maybe after our powerplay, we still believed that 200 was definitely possible despite 3/68 (67) at the end of the powerplay. We may have aimed a little too high and not realized quickly enough. Yes, it was sticking for spinners and we have two good spinners. Perhaps targeting a score of 180-210 was more realistic and more defensible. We lost a few too many wickets,” said Hopps.

“I’m not at the bettors’ meeting but the plan going into this game was that it’s a high-scoring venue. Even though we lost three wickets in the Powerplay, we had no reason to think we wouldn’t get anything else. We were scoring 11.5 runs in an over. We were still thinking 200-220. Our fault was that we did not adjust or recalibrate our sights on something lower. “I think everybody assumed in the last 48 hours coming into this game that it was going to be another 200-240 game. I don’t think the trick is realizing that sometimes that’s not the case and you actually have to put a defensible score on the board and not work too hard and get some 150 out of it. In the end, we did very well to reach 150. He batted like Kuldeep Yadav. Phil Salt was dropped by Lizad Williams on the first ball of the second over and the Englishman added salt to DC as he scored 68 off 33 balls.

KKR won the game comfortably by seven wickets.

Hopes lamented that DC’s fielding was not up to the mark and hampered their chances. “I just saw Phil Salt hitting the ball all over the place. We dropped him at deep mid-wicket in Vizag and we dropped him in the second over. When you give players a second chance to score runs they will take advantage of it. Our fielding today was not up to scratch. We dropped important catches in the tournament, it’s nobody’s fault and it can happen,” said Hopes.