Capitals of Delhi‘ IPL 2026 The campaign is running fast and the captain Akhar Patel did little to hide his disappointment after the humiliating defeat against his team Kolkata Knight Riders. Delhi are now on the brink of elimination, needing a perfect finish and favorable results elsewhere to stay alive in the play-off race, having lost five of their last six matches.
The heavy defeat exposed growing cracks in Delhi’s campaign with both bat and ball. Chasing relevance in the tournament, the Capitals instead ran short on confidence and ideas as KKR dominated the contest from start to finish. The result made almost no difference to the error in Delhi’s remaining league matches.
Axar Patel focuses on future plans after KKR defeat
Speaking after the match, Akhar’s comments reflected a dressing room that is already thinking beyond the current season. While he has officially stopped short of missing out on elimination, the Delhi skipper admitted that the team will now appreciate the mistakes and possibly use the remaining games to test the players waiting on the bench.
Axar.az reports that now the leadership should assess what went wrong during the campaign and at the same time prepare for the future. He suggested that with the season drawing to a close, Delhi could give opportunities to outfielders to identify combinations and individuals who could play a bigger role next year.
“Yes, now we will go and think about what mistakes we made. After that, yes, what now? There is still a lot of time, and next year is coming. So, what can we plan and think about next year? In this sense, we can also look at the players sitting on the bench and see who should get a chance and what we can do.” Akhar said in the post-game presentation.
A batting collapse hurts Delhi once again
Delhi Capitals never recovered from a disastrous collapse in the middle order when batting first. In a match they desperately needed to win, the side could only post 142 runs, a target that looked poor on a batting surface. Akhar admitted that losing wickets in clusters has completely taken the momentum away from Delhi. The skipper felt that the side failed to handle the pressure at crucial stages, which allowed KKR to take control of the contest.
He also admitted that the Delhi bowlers, especially the spinners, failed to execute their plans during the chase. Lack of control in the middle overs allowed KKR to open up Find Allen dictating terms with an explosive unbeaten century. Allen’s fearless batting shattered Delhi’s attack as KKR comfortably chased down the target in just 14.2 overs, boosting their play-off ambitions and bringing Delhi closer to elimination.
“I think we set a low target and at the same time there were a lot of errors from the spinners. The way they progressed, I think it was the wrong spinners. But at the same time, if you look, when we lost five wickets in two or three overs, I think the momentum got away from us.” better added.
Also READ: How KKR can qualify for IPL 2026 playoffs after beating DC in Delhi
DC is on the brink of elimination
Interestingly, DC’s playoff hopes are hanging on by the thinnest of threads after the crushing defeat to KKR. With five losses in their last six matches, DC need to win all their remaining league games to stay in contention. However, even finishing with 14 points cannot guarantee qualification this season, meaning the franchise will also have to rely heavily on positive results from other teams. Their inconsistent batting and repeated middle-order collapses have left them in a tough spot at the business end of IPL 2026.
Also READ: Fans are in awe as Finn Allen’s explosive century takes KKR to a dominant win over DC in IPL 2026.
