Delhi Capitals bowling coach James Hopes.
Credit: X/@IPL
Ahmedabad: Delhi Capitals bowling coach James Hopes said his team is looking forward to beginning its home stretch against the 'freight train' called Sunrisers Hyderabad as it aims for a resurgent run after some early setbacks in the ongoing IPL.
Delhi defeated Gujarat Titans by six wickets after bowling them out for 89 runs in a clash on Wednesday. The team will now play three back-to-back home games, starting with the contest against SRH on Saturday.
SRH have been flying high and have twice posted record-breaking IPL totals in this edition. They registered the highest ever in the tournament history -- 287/3 -- in their last game against Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
"We're running into the freight train next game, which is SRH. We've already started preparing for that. So we're hopeful if we have a good week and a half we would be top-four," Hopes said in a media interaction here on Wednesday night.
DC are currently placed sixth on the points table.
Hopes said DC skipper Rishabh Pant seems to be hitting his stride at just the right time, with his batting showing improvement and his leadership inspiring those around him.
"It's pretty good. Last year, we tried really hard to cover that gap. It's very hard to cover a world-class keeper, if not the best keeper but batsman in the world."
"Now he's back, you can just see everything about his game. His keeping, his captaincy is becoming very sharp. His batting has been pretty good from the start of the tournament actually," Hopes said.
"He's rounding in some pretty good form at back half of the tournament, and he's leading really well as well," Hopes said.
Hopes was confident that Wednesday's win would negate the 106-run defeat against Kolkata Knight Riders on April 3 that hurt the team's net run rate.
"Hopefully that negates the 270 game and the net run rate. So, yeah, it's been a good night, but we've got a pretty quick turnaround to our next game," he said.
Gill not under pressure: Miller
Gujarat Titans batter David Miller defended skipper Shubman Gill, who had a rare bad day. Gill got out for eight as four of GT's top-six failed to reach double-digit scores and the 2022 champions folded for their lowest IPL total of 89 in 17.3 overs.
"I don't think it affected the result. We have got seven-eight batters and everyone is capable of winning games," the veteran South African batter said at the post-match interaction.
Asked whether the burden of captaincy is weighing Gill down, the South African said: "No, not at all. He has scored 250-plus runs (267) from seven games, so he's batting superbly."
"It was just a bit sticky tonight, he played a bit early and got caught to cover another day he would hit it for four. He's batting superbly. He's got a lot of runs so far and a lot still to come."
"A couple of wickets were really unlucky and strange dismissals. I thought the wicket was a bit sticky. But it was certainly not a 89 all out wicket... Definitely below par tonight. We can make all the excuses in the world but at the end of the day we didn't play good cricket."
He further backed their head coach Ashish Nehra who was widely credited for GT's historic triumph in their IPL debut season in 2022.
"No, there's nothing wrong with him at all. We really enjoy his enthusiasm, his passion for the game. Off the field, he's got a gift for really making a lot of time for every single player, getting around and making sure that guys are in a good space, whether they're not playing or if they're playing."
"He's so passionate. He really wants the guys to do well and very supportive at the same breath. So, there's nothing wrong with him at all, just a lot of passion," Miller said.