Delhi Capitals director of cricket Venugopal Rao admitted the franchise’s continued wait for a maiden Indian Premier League title remains deeply frustrating after their crushing defeat to Kolkata Knight Riders at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Friday night. Delhi suffered a heavy eight-wicket loss as KKR comfortably chased down 143 in just 14.2 overs, powered by Finn Allen’s sensational unbeaten century. The defeat marked DC’s fifth straight home loss in IPL 2026 and virtually ended their playoff hopes, extending their title drought into an 18th season.

A disappointed Venugopal Rao reflected on the emotional weight of another difficult campaign for the franchise. “Eighteen years, obviously it hurts. Seriously, when you look back, when I played during my days, I always wanted to win, from Daredevils time to now,” Rao said after the match. “It’s a learning process for me. Coming into the administration part, a lot of things I’m just learning. As per what the skipper said, we want to try youngsters and let’s see,” he added.

Delhi Capitals once again struggled to maintain momentum despite getting off to a solid start with the bat. KL Rahul and Pathum Nissanka provided a promising opening partnership, but the middle order collapsed under pressure as wickets fell in clusters. Venugopal Rao admitted that all three departments had failed to deliver consistently throughout the tournament.

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“See, not one department — I think all three departments failed. After getting a good start, after seven or eight overs, we were in a good position, one wicket or something down. Then later on, in the next six to seven overs, we couldn’t get a boundary,” Venugopal Rao explained. “In this big beast of a tournament, you can’t miss chances,” he added.

The former India batter also pointed towards a lack of accountability within the batting group, which he believes has become one of Delhi’s biggest issues this season.

“One more thing — the biggest challenge as a batting group is responsibility. When things fail, as a batting unit, you need to take responsibility. I’ll do it, rather than somebody else does it. So, I think that is missing, I felt,” Rao said. Despite criticism surrounding senior players like Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav, Rao backed the experienced duo and insisted that poor form is a natural part of cricket.

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With Delhi Capitals now staring at elimination, Rao hinted that the management could use the remaining matches to test bench strength and give opportunities to younger players.“Obviously in the next three games, we will see how it goes. One game at a time and obviously we will try to use bench players. When the skipper says something like that, it is something we definitely want to try,” he concluded.