Delhi Capitals' assistant coach Mohammad Kaif on Tuesday drew attention to the practice of changing fielders in the middle of an IPL match, saying it's an unfair strategy.
“Most matches are finishing close to midnight. Teams are bringing in good fielders and replacing them with slow ones. I think the umpires should look at the changes that the teams are making," Kaif said on eve of their contest against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
"In DC versus KKR match, (Andre) Russell went out, Rinku Singh came onto the field. Piyush Chawla quickly bowled his four overs and went out and Rinku again came back. We have seen that in the last (Kings XI) Punjab game as well. Sarfaraz Khan didn't come to the field after being hit on the gloves. I don't know if he was injured. Karun Nair came onto the field and he took a good catch at long-on of (Colin) Ingram. Teams are playing smart and making changes which are not right to me. We will bring it up with the umpires.”
Delhi suffered shocking batting collapses while chasing against Kings XI Punjab and KKR. Kaif, however, said, "The last match we should have won, right now we all have a broken heart but that is IPL for you, we need to move on. “
"We have top four Indian batsmen doing well. We always knew that we needed someone in the middle order to finish the game, so we got Colin Ingram. Chris Morris has been an X factor for Delhi last couple of years but he was also run out in the last game."
Kaif said they would be looking to expose their middle and lower-order. "The top order has done most of the job So if we get (David) Warner and (Jonny) Bairstow early in the powerplay, we can be on top of the game."