‘Head-scratching strategy’: Aaron Finch blasts Delhi Capitals’ decision making

While Delhi Capitals have lost three matches and won four batting second, the team has lost all their matches batting first.

After the eight-wicket defeat to Chennai Super Kings at their home turf on Tuesday, Delhi Capitals have now suffered their sixth loss of IPL 2026 in ten matches. The Axar Patel-led team now sits at the seventh spot in the points table with eight points and would need to win their remaining four matches to have some hope of qualifying for the play-offs with the chance relying on other results going their way.

While Delhi Capitals have lost three matches batting second and won four batting second, the team has lost all their matches batting first.

After Patel won the toss and elected to bat first in the team’s eight-wicket loss against Chennai Super Kings, former Australian captain and T20 World Cup winner Aaron Finch has blasted Delhi Capitals for their decision and branded their decisions as ‘head scratching’ ones.
When asked about the team’s decision making being a mess, Finch replied in affirmative.

“Absolutely it is (a mess up). You can’t sugarcoat it any easier than that. I mean when you got all the information in front of you—that they haven’t won batting first—it makes no sense. We keep scratching our heads with some of the decisions DC makes with all the information in front of them. I can understand if you are making calls on the field on the fly. You are making a gut-feel call here and there whether it’s a bowler here or there or maybe a batting position change. But when you have got all the information in front of you, that’s when you should not be making a mistake. You can understand poor execution, winning and losing. That’s the game of cricket. That’s a professional sport. But when it comes down to black and white decisions. That you are getting wrong time and time again, that’s a concern,” Finch said on ESPNCricinfo.

Skipper Axar Patel had won the toss and decided to bat first. Delhi Capitals only managed a total of 155 for 7 in 20 overs. At one point, Delhi Capitals were placed at 69 for 5 before a 65-run partnership between Tristan Stubbs and impact sub Sameer Rizvi meant that the home side crossed 150 runs. Chennai Super Kings chased the target in 17.3 overs with Sanju Samson playing an unbeaten 52-ball knock of 87 runs.

Prior to the match, Patel had spoken about how he saw the surface as a good one and the pitch might slow down in the second innings. “We will bat first. I think the surface looks good, and we feel it’s a very good pitch. Maybe in the second innings it might slow down a bit, so I’d like to give that advantage to our bowlers,” Patel had said.

Following the loss, Patel spoke about how the team was 10-15 runs short and how the wicket got slightly better in the second innings. “The way the wicket was behaving in the first innings, I thought 155 was a good score. We are playing with eight batters, so I feel we were 10-15 runs short. I feel the wicket got slightly better in the second innings, but it was just a case of us not having any set batter,” Patel said in the post match presentation.

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After the eight-wicket defeat to Chennai Super Kings at their home turf on Tuesday, Delhi Capitals have now suffered their sixth loss of IPL 2026 in ten matches. The Axar Patel-led team now sits at the seventh spot in the points table with eight points and would need to win their remaining four matches to have some hope of qualifying for the play-offs with the chance relying on other results going their way.

While Delhi Capitals have lost three matches batting second and won four batting second, the team has lost all their matches batting first.

After Patel won the toss and elected to bat first in the team’s eight-wicket loss against Chennai Super Kings, former Australian captain and T20 World Cup winner Aaron Finch has blasted Delhi Capitals for their decision and branded their decisions as ‘head scratching’ ones.
When asked about the team’s decision making being a mess, Finch replied in affirmative.

“Absolutely it is (a mess up). You can’t sugarcoat it any easier than that. I mean when you got all the information in front of you—that they haven’t won batting first—it makes no sense. We keep scratching our heads with some of the decisions DC makes with all the information in front of them. I can understand if you are making calls on the field on the fly. You are making a gut-feel call here and there whether it’s a bowler here or there or maybe a batting position change. But when you have got all the information in front of you, that’s when you should not be making a mistake. You can understand poor execution, winning and losing. That’s the game of cricket. That’s a professional sport. But when it comes down to black and white decisions. That you are getting wrong time and time again, that’s a concern,” Finch said on ESPNCricinfo.

Skipper Axar Patel had won the toss and decided to bat first. Delhi Capitals only managed a total of 155 for 7 in 20 overs. At one point, Delhi Capitals were placed at 69 for 5 before a 65-run partnership between Tristan Stubbs and impact sub Sameer Rizvi meant that the home side crossed 150 runs. Chennai Super Kings chased the target in 17.3 overs with Sanju Samson playing an unbeaten 52-ball knock of 87 runs.

Prior to the match, Patel had spoken about how he saw the surface as a good one and the pitch might slow down in the second innings. “We will bat first. I think the surface looks good, and we feel it’s a very good pitch. Maybe in the second innings it might slow down a bit, so I’d like to give that advantage to our bowlers,” Patel had said.

Following the loss, Patel spoke about how the team was 10-15 runs short and how the wicket got slightly better in the second innings. “The way the wicket was behaving in the first innings, I thought 155 was a good score. We are playing with eight batters, so I feel we were 10-15 runs short. I feel the wicket got slightly better in the second innings, but it was just a case of us not having any set batter,” Patel said in the post match presentation.