Follow UsDelhi Capitals (DC) might have ended up on the losing side against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on April 29 (Tuesday) at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi, but their up-and-coming all-rounder Vipraj Nigam is still motivated to get things right in their remaining five matches and finish in top two on the IPL 2025 points table at the league stage.
“We are still in the top four, and that’s a good thing. In the remaining five matches, we will try and do well to finish in the top two,” Vipraj said in the post-match press conference.
But even after two losses, where is this confidence stemming from? The answer to this lies in the DC team culture, explained brilliantly by Vipraj himself.
“Everybody, including KL Bhaiya and Axar Bahai, have always said that take the game to the last ball as there is hope in it till the last ball is bowled,” said the man who scored 38 off 19 balls and tried to chase the target down, but his team fell short by 14 runs.
“The seniors and management, everybody has backed me to try what I do best, even if one or two matches do not go to our side. There is no fear of getting dropped. In many other teams, many senior players say things like, if you don’t bowl well in 2–3 overs, you will get dropped. But there is no such thing like that here,” added the 20-year-old.
Revealing the plan to chase down a big target of 205, Vipraj said that they always wanted to go after the two main spinners of KKR, Varun Chakaravarthy and Sunil Narine.
“Our plan from the start was to attack the two main spinners of KKR [Narine and Chakaravarthy]. We tried to execute that in their first two-over spell. The attempt was to get one of them out of the attack and get an extra bowler into the attack and then target him as well,” he said.
So what went wrong? “But due to shot selection and many such things, ultimately we were not able to execute our plans,” Vipraj admitted.
The Capitals have enjoyed a great period with three brilliant spinners in Kuldeep Yadav, their skipper Axar Patel, and Vipraj.
Talking about his bond with Kuldeep, also called KD by his teammates, Vipraj said, “We have been playing domestic together for Uttar Pradesh, so the bond developed right from there. So KD Bhai is always there to support me, even if I have a bad over, like what I had in the last game.”