Chennai, April 12 (IANS) Venugopal Rao, the Director of Cricket at Delhi Capitals, admitted that a middle-order collapse in the face of some superb bowling from Chennai Super Kings led to team’s a 23-run defeat in their IPL 2026 clash at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.

Chasing a target of 213, DC lost momentum after a flurry of wickets, and were bowled out for 189. “I think after seeing this second innings batting, there was a bit of that feeling (that CSK posted an above-par total). Two overs, 24 in the middle overs, I think it cost us. Obviously, if you look back now, after seeing CSK’s bowling, their four fast bowlers bowled well. They knew the conditions and executed it well.

“I felt losing four wickets in four overs was the turning point. In this format, losing back-to-back wickets always causes harm to the team. I think it is a game of momentum. If we had restricted them to 15-20 runs fewer, psychologically we have a better chance of chasing down a total below 200,” said Rao in the post-game press conference.

DC also had a sloppy fielding performance, including a botched run-out and a catch dropped of Sanju Samson on 52, who went on to score an unbeaten 115.

“I think fielding was one area that we need to improve a lot. If we fielded well, we could have saved 15–20 runs, and it would have helped us a lot. It happens in a long tournament. You will have one or two bad games. Obviously, if you look back, first three games we fielded well, we took good catches. One odd game, fielding matters. If you remember after the strategic timeout, one over, we missed one run-out and one catch,” added Rao.

Regarding DC’s personnel, Rao remained tight-lipped about Mitchell Starc’s return and the potential inclusion of Nikhil Chaudhary. “Yeah, I think in a week we’ll let you know (on Starc’s availability).”

Despite the loss, Rao was full of praise for Samson’s brilliant century for CSK. “He’s a class player, boss. You need to accept it. For him coming to a new franchise, obviously a big run is always important. I think this hundred might help him for the next few games.”

–IANS

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