Delhi Capitals back returning Nortje 'to keep getting better' with time

Match 9 of the Indian Premier League 2024 saw Rajasthan Royals pit against Delhi Capitals at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. Riyan Parag was on song against the DC bowlers, particularly Anrich Nortje who was making a return to competitive cricket after a six-month hiatus. Parag’s onslaught against Nortje saw the former scoring a whopping 25 runs in the final over of the RR’s innings.

However, DC’s coach James Hopes has backed the right-arm pacer after being taken to the cleaners by the youngster in his comeback game. Hopes affirmed that the South Africa pacer will get better with time after his figures read 48 for one in the recently concluded game. Nortje was out of action since September 2023 and subsequently missed the World Cup 2023 owing to a back stress fracture.

"I won't say too much bad about the bowlers. They just tried to execute. It was a good first half with the ball but got away from us a little bit in the last five years. It's the first time that Nortje has been at this level in a while. He had a fair time out of the game, but if you look at all the numbers, he is one of the premier death bowlers in the game. We trust that he is going to keep getting better," said Hopes as quoted by NDTV Sports.

They bowled 10 overs of death bowling pretty much at us: Hopes

The glaring aspect of DC’s chase was that barring David Warner, no other top-order batter stepped up to the occasion. Their captain, Rishabh Pant who is making his comeback with IPL 2024 scored almost run a ball when the required run rate was piling up. Hopes felt that along with the teams bowling, their batting too appeared dented in the second half of their innings.

Also Read: 'If I could play so well in domestic cricket, why couldn’t I do the same here?' - Riyan Parag after match-winning knock against DC

"With the bat, we started really well, we were in front of the game, and then fell away a little bit in the middle. They bowled 10 overs of death bowling pretty much at us, and executed it well. We need to tidy at what we do at the end of the game. It's one game, I don't even count the first game because we had to take a bowler out to get an extra batter in and then Ishant (Sharma) went down, so I'm not going to judge us too harshly on one game,” he added.