Delhi Capitals (DC) Director of Cricket Venugopal Rao has expressed disappointment over the overall fielding standards displayed by his franchise. Rao indirectly took aim at his brother Dnyaneshwar Rao, who currently serves as the fielding coach for the Delhi-based franchise, after the recent defeat.
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) defeated the Axar Patel-led side by 23 runs at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Saturday, April 11. After winning the toss in Chennai, the visiting team gave 212 runs. In reply, they were bowled out for 189 runs in 20 overs, handing them their second consecutive defeat in IPL 2026.
Venugopal Rao targets his brother over poor fielding in IPL 2026
Delhi Capitals lost due to poor fielding against Chennai Super Kings. When Sanju Samson was on 52, Pathum Nissanka dropped a crucial catch at long-off. Soon after the strategic timeout, Delhi Capitals players also missed an easy chance for a run-out against Ayush Mhatre.
Venugopal Rao talked about the fielding failures during the post-match press conference. His direct criticism placed significant pressure on Dnyaneshwar Rao and his fielding coaching methods.
Venugopal Rao said, “I think fielding is an area where we need to improve a lot. If we had fielded well, we could have saved 15-20 runs and that would have helped us a lot. This happens in a long tournament.”
“You will have one or two bad matches. Obviously, if you look back, in the first three matches we fielded well, we took good catches. A strange game, fielding matters. If you remember, after the strategic timeout, in one over, we had one run-out and one catch,” he said.
Sanju Samson punished Delhi Capitals by scoring a century
The costly dropped catch gave Sanju Samson the opportunity to dominate the Delhi Capitals bowling attack. Samson scored unbeaten 115 runs in just 56 balls, which included 15 fours and four sixes. The right-handed batsman completed his half-century in 26 balls.
Chennai Super Kings captain Ruturaj Gaikwad was out early after scoring 15 runs. However, Ayush Mhatre provided strong support, scoring 59 runs from 36 balls before retiring out. Shivam Dubey added a quickfire 20 unbeaten runs in 10 balls, helping Chennai Super Kings post a mammoth total of 212/2.
Delhi Capitals got off to a good start while chasing the target, Pathum Nissanka and KL Rahul made an opening partnership of 62 runs. However, they lost four important wickets within four overs against the disciplined bowlers of Chennai Super Kings.
Tristan Stubbs tried to fight back by scoring 60 runs in 30 balls. Jamie Overton took four wickets for just 18 runs, while Anshul Kamboj took three wickets for 35 runs. Delhi Capitals were out for 189 runs in 20 overs.
Losing four wickets in four overs was the turning point – Venugopal Rao
Venugopal Rao admitted that giving away these extra runs completely changed the dynamics of the match. Rao said that due to poor fielding he gave away 15-20 extra runs.
“I think after watching the batting of this second innings, it felt to some extent (that CSK had made a high score). Two overs, 24 in the middle overs, I think it cost us. Obviously, if you look back now, after watching CSK’s bowling, four of their fast bowlers bowled well. They knew the conditions and executed it well.”
Rao said, “I felt losing four wickets in four overs was the turning point. In this format, losing two wickets in a row always hurts the team. I think it is a game of momentum. If we had restricted them to 15-20 runs less, psychologically we would have had a better chance of chasing a score below 200.”
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