Firmly in the cellar, Delhi Daredevils can only move upwards on the points table. Team’s mentor Rahul Dravid tried to project the positive side of Daredevils campaign after a fifth successive loss in the Indian Premier League.
Speaking after Daredevils’s lowest ever tally of 67, Dravid said, “Look, we are better than what we showed today. There have been times when we played some pretty good cricket. We lost some close games, but the last couple of times, I think, we did not play well. Even in Kolkata (on Friday), I thought, in the first 15 overs, our batting was good and then we lost in the last five overs. And then, of course, we were really very poor and we didn’t bat intelligently on that kind of wicket. We didn’t assess the conditions well enough and didn’t give ourselves a chance.
Asked about what he thought of Sandeep Sharma whose four wickets wrecked Daredevils, Dravid was lavish in his praise.
“Sandeep Sharma was good today, he figured out what the wicket was like, he bowled the right lengths, he didn't try to swing the ball to much, normally you see him swing the ball a lot. But he figured that the wicket was on the slower side and he bowled wicket-to-wicket. I think the key for him was the length, which was very good and forced our batsman to play some shots and they hit the ball in the air a lot, which was not a wise thing to do on this slow wicket.
Looking ahead to the remaining six matches, including five at home, Dravid said, “We should not try and think too far ahead, just focus on our next game and put up much better performance. I think our fans and our franchise deserves better than what we did.”
