Parth Jindal 'reeling'; demands 'introspection' after Delhi Capitals' sharp downturn: 'It ended extremely poorly'
Delhi Capitals lost six of their last eight matches to suffer an elimination from the race to the IPL 2025 playoffs.
Delhi Capitals have had a season of two extreme halves. Under new captain Axar Patel, Delhi made a promising start, winning all the first four matches to reign at the top of the points table. However, they incurred a sharp turnaround thereafter, losing six of their next eight matches, which eventually led to their elimination from the race to the playoffs in the ongoing IPL 2025.
Delhi met their eventual fate on Wednesday at the Wankhede Stadium, after suffering a 59-run loss against Mumbai Indians. It was their fourth straight defeat in a completed game, having last secured a win exactly a month back at the Ekana Stadium against the Lucknow Super Giants.
Delhi were looking to seal their spot in the final playoffs berth, but the defeat handed Mumbai the ticket. Following the loss, Delhi co-oner Parth Jindal was left "reeling" as he apologised to the fans of the franchise. He demanded an "introspection" after a horrid show in the second half of the season, which he deemed "extremely poor."
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He tweeted: "Sorry to all @DelhiCapitals fans – like you, I too am reeling from the second half of the season. What started so well ended extremely poorly," he wrote. “There are positives to take from this campaign but for now all focus on the next game which we need to win. Post the season there will need to be a lot of introspection on a lot of aspects.”
Opening conundrum behind Delhi's downfall?
Delhi head coach Hemang Badani reckoned the team's failure to settle down in a designated opening pair were among the primary reasons behind the team being unable to reach the playoffs.
Delhi Capitals tried out as many as seven partners with no considerable success in 13 matches, and will now take on Punjab Kings in their last game on Saturday.
"A settled opening pair is only possible when your opening pair gives you a start. If you don't get starts, you are bound to make changes to try and fill that gap, fill that void," Badani told the media here.
"If you go back and see the other sides which have had great starts and great powerplays with the bat, we haven't had those starts and hence we've had to make those changes."
"We had Jake (Fraser-McGurk) at the top earlier, it didn't work for us. Abishek (Porel), then we had Faf (du Plessis), then we also had Karun (Nair) to come in. It's just that we haven't had anyone really making sure, ensuring that we get off to good starts," he added.
