Delhi Capitals captain David Warner opened up on his low strike rate in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023, blaming the falling wickets at the other end.
Warner scored 57 off 41 balls against Kolkata Knight Riders while chasing the 128-run target in New Delhi on April 20. The left-hander hit 10 out of 11 boundaries in the powerplay and stressed that the flurry of wickets at the other end forced him to slow down.
“There’s going to be a lot of critiques out there to suggest that I haven’t been batting the way I normally bat,” Warner said in the post-match press conference. “But when you lose three wickets in a row in two overs and I have faced three balls what would you do? You can’t do anything. You have some sense of responsibility.
“In Bangalore (against RCB), when I got out, and I guarantee you, people would have been criticising me for getting out but that’s just the game; that’s how it is.”
Warner hit his fourth fifty in the 2023 season, with the quickest coming off 33 balls against KKR. He also pointed out that he was “tentative after losing wickets” in the first few matches. Delhi Capitals beat Kolkata Knight Riders by four wickets and secured their first win of the 2023 season after losing five consecutive matches.
“Today I felt like my matchups were there, and I will take the powerplay on and we didn’t lose wickets in clumps in the first two overs. I felt like I have my rhythm back again, I had a good couple of net sessions. I felt like I was probably a bit tentative after losing wickets in the first couple of games but for me, it was about going there and playing the way I do and the way I know,” Warner said.
Warner also admitted that chasing low total was not easy for Delhi Capitals after losing five games in a row. DC are rooted at the bottom of the IPL standings, with two points from six matches.
“I think any total chasing 128 is quite a low total. There can be a little bit of, I wouldn’t say nerve but a bit scratchy. After losing five games on the trot, these games are hard to win,” Warner said. “We lost wickets again, too many consecutive wickets, we have to try and work on that but little things can happen when you are chasing small totals.”
Delhi Capitals will next take on Warner’s former team SunRisers Hyderabad on April 24.
