Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra believes that the Delhi Capitals (DC) have only themselves to blame for not reaching the final of the IPL 2021. He further added that there is no point crying now as well. Notably, they faced a three-wicket defeat against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in Qualifier 2.
While reflecting on the Delhi Capitals’ performance in a video shared on his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra opened up that the franchise might regret some of their on-field decisions as well.
He elaborated: “Delhi made a lot of self-goals. They lost to RCB on the last ball and then to Chennai. I feel they might still be thinking and might continue thinking till next year that they should have got Rabada to bowl the last over. But life is not about ifs and buts, it’s about what you do on the field.”
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He continued: “Batting first was not a bad thing if you batted properly. You reached till 135. The start was alright but after that, the wagon became slower and slower. You were thinking the innings will gather momentum at some point but it didn’t happen.”
The Delhi Capitals had scored 65/1 at the end of the tenth over. But, they lost the quick wickets – Marcus Stoinis, Shikhar Dhawan and Rishabh Pant and eventually managed a below-par score. And, Aakash Chopra stated that the Delhi Capitals should have played Steve Smith instead of Marcus Stoinis.
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He reasoned: “Tell me, why you sent Marcus Stoinis at No. 3? If you had to play him at No. 3 and not get him to bowl, then you could have played Steve Smith. He [Stoinis] has not played a lot of matches in between, so you were absolutely fine if you had not played him. You could have Steve Smith as the fourth overseas player.”
“The Sharjah pitch template is to take singles, you won’t get boundaries easily. You can hit a few sixes but nothing can happen easily. They played a lot of dot balls. There was a time around the 15th over mark, where you had played 50% dot deliveries. That is where you lost the game,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
