IPL 2023: We were off a bit with the ball – David Warner after loss against Sunrisers Hyderabad

Delhi Capitals captain David Warner admitted that they were not up to the mark with the ball against Sunrisers Hyderabad after their nine-run loss at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi on Saturday. DC conceded 197-6 after SRH skipper Aiden Markram decided to bat first.

In fact, the Orange Army had failed to chase down 145 runs against DC a few days ago but they came up with a much-improved batting show. Abhishek Sharma scored 67 runs from 36 balls while opening the innings as the left-hander was able to grab his chance.

After Mayank Agarwal, Harry Brook, Rahul Tripathi, and Aiden Markram were dismissed cheaply, Heinrich Klaasen played a fine knock of 53 runs from 27 balls. Akeal Hossein and Abdul Samad scored 16 and 28 runs respectively to add the finishing touches for the visitors.

However, barring Mitchell Marsh and Axar Patel, all the DC bowlers took a beating as they could not bowl in the right areas.

On the other hand, DC was well in the run-chase when Mitchell Marsh and Phillip Salt were going all guns blazing after the early dismissal of David Warner. But DC veered off the track when these two were dismissed after reaching their fifties. Manish Pandey, Sarfaraz Khan, and Priyam Garg could not get going, which left Axar Patel and Ripal Patel with the big task of chasing down the target.

David Warner said in the post-match presentation, “We were off a bit with the ball, but I think Mitch Marsh bowled fantastic. He was our best bowler. To come up 9 runs short is disappointing. I don’t think the pitch slowed down a lot, they took pace off.”

He added, “When you lose wickets in the middle it can be extremely difficult. He’s (Axar) in good touch. For us it was about, we get off to a good start and we know that him and me will have to handle their spinners with the ball spinning back in. Holding Axar can be difficult. We have been losing too many wickets through the middle.”

DC would have been disappointed as they could have get over the line and had their middle order delivered for them but it was not to be the case.

Delhi Capitals will next face Gujarat Titans at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Tuesday.