Delhi Capitals (DC) suffered a huge blow ahead of their clash against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) as their ace pacer Anrich Nortje will not be featuring in the upcoming contest and has flown back to South Africa. Notably, Nortje has played eight of DC’s nine matches in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 and picked seven wickets.
The news of Nortje’s departure was conveyed through an official statement by DC on their various social media handles. The Delhi-based franchise also disclosed the reason behind the Proteas cricketer’s unavailability in their statement and said that the 29-year-old left for his hometown on Friday due to a personal emergency. However, there is no mention of the date of return of Nortje in the team camp.
“𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭: Owing to a personal emergency, Delhi Capitals fast bowler Anrich Nortje had to leave for South Africa late on Friday night. He will be unavailable for this evening’s game against Royal Challengers Bangalore,” posted the official Twitter handle of DC.
𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭
Owing to a personal emergency, Delhi Capitals fast bowler Anrich Nortje had to leave for South Africa late on Friday night. He will be unavailable for this evening’s game against Royal Challengers Bangalore. pic.twitter.com/lig7mfgLan
— Delhi Capitals (@DelhiCapitals) May 6, 2023
Nortje’s exclusion from the match against RCB will surely affect DC, as they have been solely dependent on their bowling this season. It is also noteworthy that Delhi’s performance in the IPL 2023 has been below-par, and they currently sit at the last position of the points table with just three wins in nine matches.
Speaking of their last match, DC registered a narrow five-run win over Gujarat Titans (GT) in their previous game. While Ishant Sharma and Khaleel Ahmed bagged two scalps each in the contest, Nortje chipped in with one wicket.
Nortje’s compatriot Lungi Ngidi is most likely to replace the pacer in the match against the Bangalore-based team. Although Ngidi has not played any game in the ongoing tournament so far, he has a decent experience of fourteen IPL matches with 25 wickets to his name in the cash-rich league.
