Rattled by four successive defeats, the top heavy think tank of the Delhi Capitals feels that batters will have to perform much better if the team has to stay in contention for the play offs.

On Tuesday, the Delhi Capitals played out a last-ball thriller against Mumbai Indians at the Arun Jaitley Stadium here but went down by six wickets in the game. The Mumbai Indians bowled out Delhi Capitals for 172 before chasing the total down in 20 overs.

Speaking about the match, DC Director of Cricket Sourav Ganguly said: “The loss certainly hurts, especially because of the way this team has played since 2019. But these things happen in sport. It’s never easy when you lose. There are so many youngsters on our side and we’ll take time to be a good team.”

Asked about the aspects that the team needs to improve upon, Ganguly said: “We’ll have to bat much better. Axar was absolutely brilliant and that’s why we got a score of above 170. We need others to stand up. Lalit bowled well on the wicket in Delhi. But the most important thing for us is to get together and put runs on the board.”

“It can only be up from here and hopefully, the young boys will turn up on the high-scoring wicket in Bengaluru. You have to find a way to make a comeback. This has happened to everyone. When you play for a period of time, you will go through such phases. It’s about going back to your rooms, looking at the mirror and asking yourself how I can change.” Ganguly added

Meanwhile, former West Indies cricketer Chris Gayle feels that DC skipper David Warner’s slow scoring rate is creating pressure on other batters, saying that being an experienced player, the Australian should be able to improve his scoring pace. Though Warner got his third fifty of the competition and is second on the list of highest run scorers list in the IPL 2023, his strike rate has been a cause for concern.

Giving his expert views on the last evening’s match, Gayle told digital broadcaster Jio Cinema: “In the first six overs, he showed a bit of intent and tried to be positive there. The wicket was very good to bat on in the powerplay. But he is putting a lot of pressure on himself and the other players as well. Players feel they have to come while he is not getting the ball away, they pretty much have to go from ball one and that is causing Delhi a lot of problems in the middle.”

“So that’s something he needs to work on. He is experienced enough to know what to do. He spoke about it in the previous game,” he opined.

On the other hand, DC vice captain Axar Patel defended his captain, saying that Warner had been trying hard to get back to his attacking self, but has been unable to do so.

“No one has asked him (to be the anchor of the innings). Even in the last two-three games, when he has been trying to hit, it’s not been coming off. As a batsman, I don’t know what he is thinking at that moment. When Prithvi (Shaw) is batting, he has to anchor.”

The Delhi Capitals will take on Royal Challengers Bangalore in their next match at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru on Saturday.