Delhi Capitals endured a horrific run in this edition of the Indian Premier League as they suffered their ninth defeat in 14 league matches after a thumping 77-run loss against Chennai Super Kings in an afternoon encounter at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Saturday, May 20. 

After opting to bat first, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Devon Conway forged a 141-run opening stand to lay a solid foundation for the team. The duo smashed half-centuries and were complimented by a nine-ball 22 from Shivam Dube that propelled them to 223 runs in the first innings. 

In the post-match press conference, Pravin Amre, who is the Assistant Coach of the Capitals, credited the Chennai batters for putting up an impressive performance on a sluggish surface. 

"We could not predict how the wicket is going to behave in Delhi. We felt this was not going to be a 200-run wicket. We thought 180 was going to be the par score, but we have to give credit to their batters for setting the tone," Amre said. 

"They had wickets in hand, and in that situation, it is difficult to control, especially when you have quality batters coming in who have the ability to hit sixes," he further added. 

The former Indian batter was also honest in his analyses for the season and admitted the young Indian batters failed to grab their opportunity. 

"We have given an opportunity to each and everyone from our pool of players. Unfortunately, they could not come in and give us match-winning performances. Only two of our batters won the Man of the Match award - Phil Salt and Rilee Russouw." 

"David also batted brilliantly in the entire season and another positive was Axar batting well and winning some games for us. There are lot of areas we need to improve and we have to go back to the drawing board and work on how we can do better in the next season," he said. 

The 54-year-old also stated that the coaching staff would need to be a lot more proactive in the off-season to work on the skill sets of the Indian domestic players and get them ready for the next edition. 

"We started our preparations early and had a camp in September, but the challenge comes with the availability of the players. They are busy with the BCCI domestic games and representing their stateside."

"We understand how important the performance of the Indian players is, and we need to take ownership of working extra on them to get them ready for next season," he concluded.