IPL 2024: We didn’t readjust – James Hopes after loss against Kolkata Knight Riders

Delhi Capitals bowling coach James Hopes admitted they didn’t readjust after their seven-wicket loss against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata on Monday. DC could only manage 153 runs on the board after Rishabh Pant decided to bat first after winning the toss.

It was a tacky pitch as KKR spinners got help from the surface. Varun Chakravarthy was the pick of the bowlers, returning with 3-16 in his quota of four overs whereas Harshit Rana and Vaibhav Arora bagged two wickets each.

Surprisingly, Kuldeep Yadav top-scored with 35 for Delhi Capitals as none of the top and middle order batters could cross the 30-run mark.

“Tonight was a missed opportunity for us and we won’t be hiding behind any excuses for that,” James Hopes said in the post-match press conference.

With no dew around and the pitch helping the spinners, Hopes feels a target of 180-210 would have been par but they kept losing wickets at regular intervals.

“I think the thought process behind it was, having some success in putting up a big score on the board and then try and defend it. I think we knew there wasn’t going to be much dew and there wasn’t. There was barely any dew at the end. We knew batting first that we needed a score with a 2 in front of it. And maybe after our powerplay, which we still thought 200 was definitely possible after being 3/68 (67) at the end of the powerplay. We might have aimed a bit too high and didn’t understand quickly enough. Yes, it was sticking for the spinners and we have two pretty good spinners ourselves. Maybe targeting the 180-210 score was more realistic and more defendable. We lost a few wickets going a bit too hard,” Hopes said.

“I am not in the batter’s meeting but the plan going into this game was that this has been a high-scoring venue. Even though we lost three wickets in the powerplay, we had no reason to think we would not get anything other than that. We were scoring at 11.5 an over. We were still thinking 200-220. Our fault was that we didn’t readjust or recalibrate our sight on something slightly lower.

“I think everyone assumed the last 48 hours coming into this game that it is going to another 200-240 game. I don’t think the trick is understanding that it’s not that sometimes and you have to actually put a defendable score on board and not go too hard and get some of that 150. In the end, we did pretty well get to get to 150 with Kuldeep Yadav batting the way he did.,” he added.

Meanwhile, Phil Salt was dropped on the first ball of the second over by Lizaad Williams and the Englishman went on score a cracking knock of 68 off just 33 balls.

“I just saw Phil Salt whack the ball everywhere. We dropped him at deep mid-wicket in Vizag and we dropped him in the second over. When you give players a second opportunity to score runs they are going to take it. Our fielding today wasn’t up to scratch. We had dropped important catches in the tournament, that’s no one’s fault and that can just happen,” Hopes said.

Delhi Capitals will next take on table-leaders Rajasthan Royals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi on 7th May.