Delhi Capitals’ opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan, who was also the stand-in captain after Shreyas Iyer got injured, appreciated the debutant Tushar Deshpande and said that Ben Stokes’ wicket was huge for them as both the sides were at a similar position after the 10 overs.
Speaking after the win against the Rajasthan Royals on Wednesday, 14 October, Dhawan was pleased to see Deshpande hold his nerves and said that he was very clear with what he wanted to do and backed himself.
The 25-year-old pacer from Mumbai went for 11 runs in his first over and came back to bowl the 11th over of RR’s innings, when they needed 77 runs off the last 10 overs.
On the second ball of the over, he deceived Stokes with an off-cutter, who was early into his shot and hit it into the hands of the fielder at long-on. Deshpande then held his nerve when he came onto bowl the last over and won the game for his side, when RR required 22 runs.
With Stokes and Sanju Samson going great guns RR were in a comfortable position at the 10-over mark. Asked about what was the chat, Dhawan said that they had to keep believing and keep the positive energy in the group going.
“We knew they don’t have experience down the order, so if we get wickets up there (top order), the game can change quickly and everyone responded very nicely,” he said.
After getting Stokes out in the 11th over, Delhi Capitals took wickets of Sanju Samson in the 12th and Riyan Parag in the 14th over to shift the onus on RR’s middle-order to win for them.
With Anrich Nortje and Kagiso Rabada bowling in the death overs, RR kept losing wickets and eventually fell short by 13 runs.
Asked about the consistency shown by the South African pace duo, Dhawan said that DC is fortunate to have two class bowlers like Nortje and Rabada. He added that both of them have bowled consistently for them and when they bowl in tandem, they are very lethal and have provided wickets to DC whenever they come into the attack.
Rabada leads the purple cap race with 18 wickets while Anrich Nortje has impressed everyone with his pace and bowled deliveries around 155 km/hr on Wednesday, breaking the IPL record for fastest delivery after 2012.
‘Important to Cash in on First 6 Overs’
Batting first, DC scored 161/7 in the 20 overs, owing to Dhawan’s knock of 57 runs off just 33 balls. But it wasn’t a good start for DC, as they lost Prithvi Shaw and Ajinkya Rahane at the score of 10.
Asked if it was a conscious effort from him to score at a fast pace, Dhawan said that with half of the tournament over, the wickets are going to slow down and it was important for him to make the Powerplay count even though they lost early wickets.
Although he felt that they were 10-15 runs short, considering they were at 129/3 after 15 overs and RR bowlers didn’t let them get away in the last 5, he was happy that his side ended up on the winning side.
After the win, DC now have won six games out of the 8 they have played and sit pretty at the top of the Points table.
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