Captain of Delhi Capitals Akshar Patel He had some answers after his team suffered two heavy defeats in less than 48 hours in IPL 2026.After failing to defend 264 against Punjab Kings on Saturday, Delhi were bowled out for just 75 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru on Monday.Delhi were reduced to 9 runs for 6 wickets inside the power play. Bhuvneshwar Kumar Got movement with the new ball and Josh Hazlewood Used the short ball plan well.This became the team’s lowest score of the season and RCB completed a comfortable nine-wicket win.“Even I don’t know what happened. That’s why they say you have to be on your toes in cricket. We have to move on from this match,” Axar said in the post-match presentation.He also looked at key moments from recent matches, including the missed single against Gujarat Titans and Karun Nair’s dropped catch against Punjab Kings.“From today’s point of view, you can say it had an impact, but you can look back, if the catches had been taken (Nair) or if we had taken a single against GT, the momentum would have been with us. The game is such that there is no room for ifs and buts. You have to be positive, you had a bad day and take positives from the last 5-6 games,” added Axar.However, the Delhi skipper did not agree that there was too much swing on offer, even as Bhubaneswar’s Anunagar bowled the debutant Sahil Parkh.“I’m not surprised, they are world class bowlers, they swing it on every ground, but if our openers or top order had played them, the result would have been different.”Hazlewood, who removed KL Rahul and Nitish Rana with short balls, said he was not sure what to expect from the pitch after scoring more than 500 runs in the previous match at the same venue.“Coming here after probably over 500 in the last game, not sure what was going to happen,” Hazlewood said, adding that he followed Bhuvneshwar’s lead.“He was just following his (Bhuvneshwar) lead. In the first six overs there was a bit – enough to work with, and it was slipping quickly from short of length. Once the ball softened, it added more,” said Hazlewood.He also revealed how he planned Rana’s removal.“Normally, you wanted the batsman to hit it under the wicket and in the V. The short ball was also good, just about accuracy. When that ball was good and hard, it was difficult to bat. Hazlewood said it would have been good to bowl four.RCB captain Rajat Patidar also admitted that he was surprised by the behavior of the pitch.He said that I am also surprised by the way the wicket played.“All credit goes to the bowlers, Bhovi and Hazlewood. They hit the right spots. The swing was normal but the good thing was that we got early wickets and that put us in the driving seat. The way Swayash Sharma bowled, stump-to-stump, it was great to see,” he concluded.
