Kuldeep not finishing his spell to me was missed opportunity: Daren Ganga

During their slender defeat on home turf, Delhi didn't exercise the option of using spin in the powerplay and kept Kuldeep away from attack till the 11th over. The defending champions went on to post a daunting 204/9 on the board, which proved 14 runs too much for the hosts, their third at the home strip.

Kuldeep appeared off-colour, bowled three overs, went wicketless and leaked 27 runs at an economy of 9.00. Despite an underwhelming outing with the ball, Ganga felt Kuldeep should have bowled his full quota as he was a wicket-taking option for the Capitals.

"Kuldeep not finishing his spell to me was a bit of a missed opportunity. When you have a bowler like Kuldeep, regardless of the day he's having, I'd like to see him exhaust his full complement of overs. That is something he [Axar] could've looked at - bowling Kuldeep's one over earlier on and then bowling three overs in the middle. That could've changed proceedings and probably informed how the other spinners would go on that surface," Ganga said on ESPNcricinfo's Time Out show.

"I was having a conversation about teams and their reluctance to use conventional wristspinners in the powerplay phase. To me, if you're trying to control a phase by taking wickets, that's an option for you. And then if you know you have an issue with your bowlers not penetrating opposition batters, then I think it is worth a gamble for you to use, at least one over of wristspin in that phase," he added.

Kuldeep joined the gripping action as Delhi's sixth bowler and bowled his three overs during the middle phase, the 11th, 13th, and 15th over. By the time he was introduced to make a difference, Kolkata had taken authority in the fixture. Even if the Knight Riders face a few hiccups, all signs pointed towards a 200-plus target for the Capitals. (ANI)