The Delhi Capitals quickly need to arrest their slide before they fall too far back in the race for the playoffs. The job for that begins on Monday, when they take on Sunrisers Hyderabad away from home.
Delhi had begun their season with four victories on the trot, but have suffered three losses in their last four games. With 12 points from 10 games, their mid-table positioning is not good enough as the other teams are going all out to clinch the playoffs berths.
Theoretically, it should not be too difficult for the Axar Patel-captained team to overcome the challenge of the Sunrisers, whose campaign is in the doldrums because of lacklustre performances. The Hyderabad side are second from the bottom with just three wins from 10 matches.
Delhi were the leaders on the points table for quite some time at the beginning of the season. They seemed a complete side with the batters and bowlers complementing each other effectively. But they have suddenly lost their grip on crunch situations and so have been losing matches.
Delhi come into the game on the back of a home loss against the Kolkata Knight Riders. They also have an injury concern as Axar was injured during their last game. But they can also take heart from the fact that opener Faf du Plessis is batting well, and if KL Rahul too is in his elements, they can outmuscle the Sunrisers.
With also a lot of variety in their bowling, Delhi should step onto the field on Monday minus the baggage of their recent poor performances.
“It’s about winning moments in the game. We’ve been doing that really well in most of the games that we’ve played... We need to go out there and play with a lot of freedom,” Delhi’s Karun Nair summed it up aptly for his team on Sunday.