Kolkata: Ruing the missed opportunities, Delhi Daredevils skipper Jean-Paul Duminy said not scoring enough runs in the powerplay overs hurt them badly against Kolkata Knight Riders here on Thursday.
Chasing a stiff 172, DD managed just 36 runs from the first six overs as new opener in Manoj Tiwary batted slow, managing only 25 from 28 balls as they suffered their seventh loss of the season.
“With our batting lineup, I still thought we had an opportunity chasing 172. We did not lose any wickets up front but we probably did not capitalise on the power play as we would have liked,” the South African said at the post match news conference.
“They capitalised during their powerplay but probably we’re 15-20 runs short in the first six overs. They played quite a few spinners and that worked to their advantage.”
“There’re various moments where we got things wrong, missed opportunities and that cost us probably 15-20 too many.
Yes, there’re a lot of areas where probably we could have changed the game. But that’s unfortunate the way T20 goes,” Duminy said.
The skipper had dropped Mayank Agarwal and brought in local lad Tiwary to play at his home ground but the move did not work.
“We dropped an opener so we probably had to fill that spot and he was the next guy in. He was very keen to do that.
we are not blaming anyone for certain performances that lost us the game. On a whole, we all could have done better, we all could have taken up responsibilities at some stage of the game. I probably leaked a too much in the powerplay.”
Duminy had included power hitter Albie Morkel but saved him for No 8 as it helped their cause a little but the skipper said there’s no point thinking on hindsight.
“There’s always a hindsight when you lose a game of cricket. Yes he’s a massive power hitter. I still back our decisions. They bowled well in these conditions and can’t just take away the credit from them. Especially the last three overs with Umesh (Yadav) and (Andre) Russell, they bowled well.”
Sunil Narine was back in action after being cleared by the BCCI with a final warning and Duminy said their batters did decently against the so-called KKR mystery spinner.
“We played him pretty well in the end, did not give him any wicket. His economy rate in T20 is pretty much under six and we did pretty well going more than seven against him. We knew it’s not going to make any difference whether Narine played or not.
PTI
