‘I’m not going to judge us too harshly on one game’ – DC Bowling Coach James Hopes after their defeat against RR

Jaipur, 29 March 2024: The franchise Delhi Capitals suffered their second consecutive loss in the IPL 2024 against Rajasthan Royals by 12 runs at Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Thursday. The home side put up 185/5 in their 20 overs and then restricted the Delhi Capitals to 173/5. 

Reflecting on the performance, Delhi Capitals’ Bowling Coach James Hopes said, “I won’t say too much bad about the bowlers. They just tried to execute. It was a good first half with the ball but got away from us a little bit in the last five years. It’s the first time that Nortje has been at this level in a while. He had a fair time out of the game, but if you look at all the numbers, he is one of the premier death bowlers in the game. We trust that he is going to keep getting better.”

He further highlighted, “With the bat, we started really well, we were in front of the game, and then fell away a little bit in the middle. They bowled 10 overs of death bowling pretty much at us, and executed it well.” 

When asked about his early assessments and improvement areas for the team, Hopes said, “We need to tidy up what we do at the end of the game. It’s one game, I don’t even count the first game because we had to take a bowler out to get an extra batter in and then Ishant went down, so I’m not going to judge us too harshly on one game.”

“We need to tidy up our middle over batting too. We tend to get stuck a little bit in phases there. We know the fix for that is Rishabh Pant. He has played two games after a long layoff and I think you’re going to see some pretty special things from him in the next few weeks,” he concluded.

The Delhi Capitals will take on Chennai Super Kings in their next game at the ACA–VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam on Sunday.