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Rediff.com  » Cricket » IPL: Six defeats in a row but Jayawardene still optimistic!
This article was first published 11 years ago

IPL: Six defeats in a row but Jayawardene still optimistic!

Last updated on: April 19, 2013 12:57 IST

Image: Mahela Jayawardene
Photographs: BCCI

Virender Sehwag's comeback from injury has not helped Delhi Daredevils one bit in their disastrous IPL campaign and skipper Mahela Jayawardene feels that having the senior opener back in the side does not put an end to all their problems.

"It's not just about Viru. Just having Viru does not really solve our problem. As a batting unit, we need to score runs and be more consistent. Out of the six games, the one in Mumbai and the match against CSK have been two bad games. We should have at least won two matches by now," Jayawardene said on Thursday.

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Delhi Daredevils were shot out for 83 against CSK, facing a 86-run loss on Thursday.

Daredevils' chance of a recovery is lost for all practical reasons, but Jayawardene was not ready to throw in the towel yet.

"If we don't believe that we can qualify, then we should not be playing in the first place. I still believe we can get to six points and then suddenly force ourselves somewhere in the middle of the table. We have to believe in our abilities. If we have got ourselves in this situation, it's up to us to pull ourselves out of trouble," Jayawardene said.

'Our plans did not work while batting'

Image: Chris Morris appeals successfully for the wicket of Mahela Jayawardene
Photographs: BCCI

About the margin of defeat, the skipper said, "I thought 160 was a par-score on this track considering the batting line-up CSK had. But we lost a lot of wickets upfront and it became difficult. We bowled well for a while before MS (Dhoni) came in. But our plans did not work while batting. Also they bowled and fielded well and kept up the pressure on us."

Questions have been raised about the quality of domestic talent in the Delhi set-up but Jayawardene backed the youngsters.

"We have guys like Unmukt who had a good season before IPL and also Manpreet (Juneja) and Kedar (Jadhav) who have batted well. Actually, when we lose, it's very easy to point fingers at certain things. At the end, it's about winning matches," he said.

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