Buoyed by the victory over Punjab Kings in their penultimate league fixture, Delhi Capitals on Friday promised a better showing against the Chennai Super Kings in their last match of this season’s IPL at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, here on Saturday.
Talking to the media persons here this afternoon, Delhi Capitals’ Assistant Coach Shane Watson said, “We certainly have a lot to play for as a franchise and individually. Hopefully, we can perform really well and take confidence from our win against Punjab Kings.”
In IPL, Delhi have won only two out of six home games so far. “See, the tracks here haven’t been great, to be totally honest. They are probably great if you have a different sort of setup for your team. If you have a lot of Indian top-order batters, then that wicket will suit the team. But that’s not the makeup of our squad. We saw the other night, where we saw ourselves playing on a traditional, good playing wicket and the ball goes through nicely like it’s going nicely and the ball doesn’t really turn a lot.” he admitted.
He however hastened to add “That’s not an excuse for us not performing well; it’s just that it made it more difficult for us and our batters to be at their best. Hopefully, from one season to next, there will be better surfaces and big change out there as with the make-up of our team, it doesn’t make it really easy for us.”
“We then saw what can exactly happen from our batting-line up with overseas batters and Prithvi Shaw, which is our strength. But unfortunately, when we came here to Delhi, because of the amount of cricket played on this wicket block, it’s very dry, not much grass and exposes the set-up of our batting in particular.” he opined.
He admitted that Prithvi Shah’s poor form impacted the team “One of the most disappointing parts of this IPL season for the Delhi Capitals was Prithvi Shaw. I always have been a huge fan and love watching Prithvi bat. Like how he did the other night in Dharamshala, he’s just one of the most beautiful batters to watch and take down best bowling as well with the skill he’s got.”
He however lavished praise on Prithvi saying ” He is one of the most beautiful batters to watch. And his time off from the playing eleven has seemed to give him a chance to focus on the direction he wants to move in. He certainly had an extra bit of fire in the belly in our last game.”
Watson asserted that IPL 2023 season has played a big part in the development of young players in the DC camp, “There has been a lot of progress and development for the younger Indian batters during this season. We’ve been working with individual players to help them grow as fast as they can. This year has played a big part in the younger players’ development; hopefully, we’ve set them up for the upcoming seasons.”
He hoped that next season Delhi Capitals will be a strong contender ” We are going to have a very similar squad again and conditions will be more suitable to the make-up of our team. Hopefully, there will be more truer batting surfaces which will show the true, world-class batters that we do have on nice, traditional surfaces.