Though DC enthralled 31,200 fans with a five-wicket victory over Rajasthan Royals, they managed to get only two wins from seven home matches this season. It\u2019s something which also proved to be their undoing in the 2025 edition of the competition, where they got only one win out of five games in New Delhi.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\"I think if you go back and see, if you are able to break the season into two halves about what\u2019s happened at home and what\u2019s happened away, we have had four wins in six games away and we have primarily struggled at home.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cWe have literally had our second win at home this year and if I had to speak of what\u2019s happened from last year, we have had five at this venue plus we have had seven now, which is 12 games and we have only had three wins and one of them being a Super Over.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cThat pretty much tells you how the surface has been for us. It hasn\u2019t been conducive to our style of play. We've, at many times, not been able to figure out what the surface is like. That's the reason why you see those results and those numbers,\" Badani told reporters after DC's five-wicket win over Rajasthan Royals.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
He also used Sunday\u2019s game as an example of how DC had to adapt on the fly to close their home leg on a high. \u201cSpeaking of this game, I think even if you look at their innings, they were 160 for two, and then they hardly got runs in the end. I think they got about 33 in the last six and picked up eight wickets. The same happened to us where we slowed down a little bit.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cBut we were cautious because we had a scoreboard available to us. They had to set a target. We were just looking to create the game, because the ball was starting to do reverse and holding a bit on the surface. It wasn't easy to bat once the ball got older. Hence, we've said, take the game deep, go hard at the top, but take the game deep in the end.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Highlighting the complicated relationship with their home venue, where their loss percentage stands an inexplicable 71.4 percent, Badani further talked about how the DC camp has even stopped talking about how conditions at Kotla would pan out, just like how Axar Patel said during toss time. \u201cLiterally the same with me. We've stopped discussing the surface. We play this venue as another venue.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\"You generally would ideally look at the grass that's available on the surface, the texture and color of the surface. But each time we've turned up here, we've got something very different. So, it is what it is. We accept it and we move on. It should at least be where you know what you\u2019re expecting. Here we didn\u2019t know what this surface was going to do to us.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cOne match we\u2019re out on 60, another on 150, another on 260. So we don\u2019t know how to consistently play pitch No. 4, No. 5, No. 6. We\u2019ve played on three surfaces and if you look at the numbers of all three, you\u2019ll think it\u2019s 19-20. So that is difficult for you to prepare.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cWe know that if pitch No. 5 is a 180 pitch, pitch No. 6 is a 200 pitch, pitch No. 4 is a 250 pitch, then you structure the side accordingly. You structure your 11 and 12 accordingly. But here, it\u2019s just going on and we had stopped discussing the surface.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cWe play this venue as an away venue. You generally would ideally look at the grass that\u2019s available on the surface, the texture of the surface, the colour of the surface, but each time we\u2019ve turned up here we\u2019ve got something very different,\" elaborated Badani.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Sunday\u2019s game was also an instance of bowling and batting performances clicking collectively for DC, who still have a very small chance of entering the playoffs. Mitchell Starc\u2019s four-fer was complemented by the opening pair of KL Rahul and Abishek Porel showcasing glittering strokeplay to be 72\/0 in power-play - DC's best batting powerplay returns in the season.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Eventually, Rahul and Potel had a superb 105-run opening partnership, making it DC\u2019s second 100-plus opening stand of the season. Co-incidentally, both century-plus stands of DC\u2019s opening pair have come against RR.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
On DC frequently rotating opening combinations through the season, where they also tried Pathum Nissanka and Sahil Parakh, Badani said decisions of that nature always appeared far easier in hindsight than they were at the time of making.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\"I think the way I see it is, hindsight is a beautiful thing. To think of everything once everything is done, it\u2019s like wow, it\u2019s like Eureka, we know what\u2019s happening. But you\u2019re obviously trying to figure out something to start with. If you go back to our season in 2025, our issues were up top.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
On DC frequently rotating opening combinations through the season, where they also tried Pathum Nissanka and Sahil Parakh, Badani said decisions of that nature always appeared far easier in hindsight than they were at the time of making.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cBut I would ideally say that Pathum did give us something. He\u2019s given us 40s, 50s, 60s. Yes, I could be greedy and say maybe Pathum could have given me a game of 80 or 100, but I think he\u2019s not done badly. It\u2019s more the case now with Abishek Porel giving us a 100 partnership, which has happened later through the season. But this is a very easy conversation to have right now. So it is what it is. We accept it and we move on,\" he concluded.<\/p>\r\n\r\n