Former India skipper Sourav Ganguly, also the Director of Cricket for the Delhi Capitals (DC) was ecstatic after his team secured their first win of the season over the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in Delhi on Thursday. Chasing just 128 for the win proved a daunting task, but Axar Patel led them to victory in the final over of the game to secure their first win of the season.
Ganguly revealed that winning the first points of this season almost felt like the moment he scored his first runs in Test cricket all the way back in 1996 against England at the Lord's. "Happy to get off the mark. I was sitting there in the dugout and thinking it was like getting my first Test run (about the pressure to get their first points of the season)," he said after their first win in six matches of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 season.
However, the former KKR skipper was unhappy with the team's batting, as the players dragged out what should have been a comfortable run chase, to the very last over. "We were on the luckier side today. We bowled well before as well this season. But the problem is the batting. We need to go back and look at ourselves and see how we can get better."
"I know we have not played well and must find a way to bat better. We work hard with the boys and get them back in form. Be it Prithvi, Manish, Mitch Marsh. They have been important players and around for a while for their respective teams," Ganguly said after his team's win.
Delhi Capitals were brilliant with the ball, with Ishant Sharma — who returned to the IPL for the first time since 2021 — picking up two wickets while Anrich Nortje, Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav bagged two each as well. Despite a late flurry of runs in the final overs of the game, the bowlers were able to restrict KKR to just 127-all out
However, their chase was not so simple. Initially in a strong position after David Warner's quick half-century, DC quickly went from 93 for 3 to 111 for 6 as part-time spinners Anukul Roy and Nitish Rana combined with Varun Chakravarthy to take the game to the death.
Eventually, Axar Patel and Lalit Yadav steadied the ship and managed to chase down seven runs in the final over to secure a four-wicket win with four balls to spare.
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