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The Delhi Capitals (DC), led by David Warner, suffered yet another loss in IPL 2023 on Saturday, April 29, this time to fellow-strugglers Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). Delhi have now lost six out of their eight games so far and are currently the bottom side in the points table.
At the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi, SRH won the toss and opted to bat first. Abhishek Sharma's 67, Heinrich Klaasen's 53 and Abdul Samad's 28 powered them to a score of 198 in their designated 20 overs.
In response, the Capitals got off to a poor start, losing skipper Warner in the first over. Phillip Salt and Mitchell Marsh fought hard, but eventually fell short by nine runs as SRH clinched their third win of the season.
Here’s a look at three things that cost the Capitals in their IPL 2023 game against the Sunrisers:
3 things which cost DC in their IPL 2023 game against SRH
#1. Axar Patel's underutilization
Axar Patel has been one of the lone glimmers of hope in the Delhi Capitals squad in IPL 2023. In seven games prior to the match against SRH, Patel has scored 182 runs at a commendable strike-rate of over 135. He has by far been Delhi's best batter this year and many pundits have opined that he needs to be utilized higher up the order.
The Capitals, however, missed a trick once again as they sent Axar to bat at number seven. Patel ended up scoring 29 of just 14 deliveries, which further highlighted the mistake. DC ended up paying the price for the blunder, as they lost by just nine runs and one can't help but wonder about what could have been had Axar been sent to bat earlier.
#2. Unreliable middle-order
Delhi's middle order, comprising Manish Pandey, Sarfaraz Khan and Priyam Garg, is quite an unreliable one. In six games in IPL 2023, Pandey has scored just 132 runs at a strike-rate of only 120. Sarfaraz has scored 53 runs in four games, striking at less than 100. Garg played his first game of the season and together the trio could only manage to score 22 runs in as many deliveries.
They couldn't cash in on the brilliant work done by Mitchell Marsh and Phillip Salt and ended up conceding the momentum back to the opposition. This again highlights the fact that Axar should have been sent ahead of them, having done well this year.
#3. Poor bowling by frontliners
Four of Delhi's six bowlers - Ishant Sharma, Mukesh Kumar, Anrich Nortje and Kuldeep Yadav - had a bad outing against the Orange Army. They all conceded runs at an economy rate of more than nine per over which didn't help Delhi's cause.
They allowed SRH to post their second-highest powerplay score of the season and eventually get to 197 which is by no means a small total. The mistakes made by the bowlers proved to be quite costly for Warner's side.
