'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,/9j/4AAQSkZJRgABAQAAAQABAAD/2wCEAAMDAwMDAwQEBAQFBQUFBQcHBgYHBwsICQgJCAsRCwwLCwwLEQ8SDw4PEg8bFRMTFRsfGhkaHyYiIiYwLTA+PlQBAwMDAwMDBAQEBAUFBQUFBwcGBgcHCwgJCAkICxELDAsLDAsRDxIPDg8SDxsVExMVGx8aGRofJiIiJjAtMD4+VP/AABEIAAYACgMBIgACEQEDEQH/xABkAAEBAQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAQYQAAEEAgIDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAECAwQRAAUGBxITMgEBAQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABQYRAAECBQUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIBAwAEBSFhERMiMVH/2gAMAwEAAhEDEQA/AMJJ6A3cBrWxZEjUPrnSC2lwe5JRY8iTQFk1WRzo7m8VxbAe4zTSigW2+fnGMbCVYIi1DrKxInVZ9W2l3bqN+A+riP/Z'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
The Delhi Capitals (DC) had a poor start to their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 campaign as they were thrashed by the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in their opening game at the Ekana Stadium.
David Warner won the toss and decided to bowl first and they made a pretty good start with the ball, reducing the hosts to 19/1 in four overs. However, Kyle Mayers made batting look easy as he smashed his way to 73 off just 38 deliveries.
His knock helped LSG post a score of 193 on the board. In reply, Delhi could only make 143 runs as their batters had no answers to the questions posed by Mark Wood's fiery spell, returning with a five-wicket haul.
Delhi will need to get their act together when they face the Gujarat Titans in their next game on Tuesday, April 34. Here, we look at three worrying signs for DC after their loss to LSG in IPL 2023.
#1 Inexperienced bowling attack
The five bowlers DC used on Saturday included the likes of Khaleel Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar, and Chetan Sakariya, who have only 54 games amongst them.
On a bad day, Delhi could be in deep trouble with a bowling line-up like this. LSG smashed 16 sixes over the course of the innings, which goes to show that the execution by Delhi's bowlers was quite poor.
DC could ponder upon the inclusion of the vastly experienced Ishant Sharma for the game against the Gujarat Titans.
#2 Lack of batting depth
Delhi's top-seven batters are absolutely sensational on paper but post that, it is a long tail with the likes of Kuldeep Yadav, Chetan Sakariya, Khaleel Ahmed, and Mukesh Kumar. Despite the presence of the Impact Player rule, their lack of batting depth was exposed during the first game against Lucknow.
They brought in Aman Hakim Khan who did not have a great run and many pundits thought that they erred with the change. They could have perhaps brought in someone like Manish Pandey who has tons of experience.
#3 Sloppy fielding
Delhi's fielding was not up to the mark in the first game and coach Ricky Ponting was in agreement with this.
Delhi's Khaleel Ahmed dropped Mayers when he was only on 14, which proved to be a costly mistake as the West Indian went on to score 73. There were also a few misfields here and there, which cost the team some crucial runs.
"To be brutally honest, I think they got more runs than they probably should have," he said post the game.
DC will look to get their fielding in place before squaring off against Hardik Pandya-led Gujarat.
